Identification and prediction of association patterns between nutrient intake and anemia using machine learning techniques

results from a cross-sectional study with university female students from Palestine

authored by

Radwan Qasrawi, Manal Badrasawi, Diala Abu Al-Halawa, Stephanny Vicuna Polo, Rami Abu Khader, Haneen Al-Taweel, Reem Abu Alwafa, Rana Zahdeh, Andreas Hahn, Jan Philipp Schuchardt

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study utilized data mining and machine learning (ML) techniques to identify new patterns and classifications of the associations between nutrient intake and anemia among university students.

METHODS: We employed K-means clustering analysis algorithm and Decision Tree (DT) technique to identify the association between anemia and vitamin and mineral intakes. We normalized and balanced the data based on anemia weighted clusters for improving ML models' accuracy. In addition, t-tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were performed to identify significant differences between the clusters. We evaluated the models on a balanced dataset of 755 female participants from the Hebron district in Palestine.

RESULTS: Our study found that 34.8% of the participants were anemic. The intake of various micronutrients (i.e., folate, Vit A, B5, B6, B12, C, E, Ca, Fe, and Mg) was below RDA/AI values, which indicated an overall unbalanced malnutrition in the present cohort. Anemia was significantly associated with intakes of energy, protein, fat, Vit B1, B5, B6, C, Mg, Cu and Zn. On the other hand, intakes of protein, Vit B2, B5, B6, C, E, choline, folate, phosphorus, Mn and Zn were significantly lower in anemic than in non-anemic subjects. DT classification models for vitamins and minerals (accuracy rate: 82.1%) identified an inverse association between intakes of Vit B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, E, folate, Zn, Mg, Fe and Mn and prevalence of anemia.

CONCLUSIONS: Besides the nutrients commonly known to be linked to anemia-like folate, Vit B6, C, B12, or Fe-the cluster analyses in the present cohort of young female university students have also found choline, Vit E, B2, Zn, Mg, Mn, and phosphorus as additional nutrients that might relate to the development of anemia. Further research is needed to elucidate if the intake of these nutrients might influence the risk of anemia.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Food Science and Human Nutrition
Nutrition Physiology and Human Nutrition Section

External Organisation(s)

Al-Quds University
An-Najah National University
Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU)

Type

Article

Journal

European journal of nutrition

ISSN

1436-6207

Publication date

21.03.2024

Publication status

E-pub ahead of print

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Nutrition and Dietetics, Medicine (miscellaneous)

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 2 - Zero Hunger

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-024-03360-8 (Access: Open)