Percepción de la cantidad de flujo menstrual y su asociación con las deficiencias de hierro, ácido fólico y vitamina B12 en mujeres de la Ciudad de México

nutritional anaemias affect more than one third of women of reproductive age worldwide as a result of a lack of one or various nutrients involved in the haematopoiesis, mainly iron. women are at higher risk because of menstruation. the objective of this paper was to evaluate the association between the perception of the amount of menstrual bleeding and iron, folic acid, vitamin b12, ferritin and hemoglobin deficiencies, among women from mexico city. this cross-sectional study included 12-49 year old women, that were not pregnant or breastfeeding. hemoglobin, ferritin, iron, folate, and vitamin b12 were quantified. self reported menstrual bleeding was estimated by using a 10 cm long visual analogue scale. associations were calculated by student？s t test, chi2 and pearson？s correlation coefficient. sensibility and specificity were depicted in a roc curve. results showed that anaemic women perceived a larger menstrual blood loss than those non anaemic (p<0.05). no differences were observed in any other of the micronutrients studied.the visual analogue scale is an easy-to-answer and cheap screening test that could be used in apparently healthy populations to detect the risk of anaemia.