Dietary non-heme iron bioavailability among children (5-8 years) in a rural, high anemia prevalent area in North India: comparison of algorithms.

Non-heme iron bioavailability of diet consumed by children (ages 5 to 8) in rural area of India was estimated by comparison of algorithms. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among 232 children and consisted of a 24-hour recall on 2 nonconsecutive days. Four algorithms were chosen to estimate the non-heme iron bioavailability. Daily average non-heme iron bioavailability as calculated by different algorithms was low (between 3.2% and 4.6%). Correlations of bioavailable non-heme iron among different algorithms were strong, ranging from rs = 0.67 to rs = 0.85 (p = .01)