ArticleBMJ open2025
Predictive machine-learning model for screening iron deficiency without anaemia: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effect of 2-Year Caloric Restriction in the Absence of Malnutrition on Indicators of Anemia, Iron Status, and Hepcidin in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.The Journal of nutrition · 2026Trial
- Predicting Iron Deficiencies Using Routine Complete Blood Cell Count Parameters: A Machine Learning Approach and Evaluation.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Beyond prediction: explainable machine learning for ferritin estimation from complete blood count.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Article
- AI-assisted haematology: machine learning-based prediction of iron-deficiency anaemia from reticulocyte maturation indices.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThis study aimed to develop and validate a machine-learning (ML) model to predict iron deficiency without anaemia (IDWA) using routinely collected electronic health record (EHR) data. The primary hypothesis was that an ML model could achieve better accuracy in identifying low ferritin levels (<30 ng/mL) in non-anaemic patients compared with traditional methods.
designA retrospective cohort study.
settingData were derived from secondary and tertiary care facilities within the eight-hospital Mount Sinai Health System, an urban academic health system.
participantsThe study included 211 486 adult patients (aged ≥18 years) with normal haemoglobin levels (≥130 g/L for men and ≥120 g/L for women) and recorded ferritin measurements. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the prediction of low ferritin levels (<30 ng/mL) using extreme gradient-boosted decision trees, an ML algorithm suited for structured clinical data. Secondary outcomes included subgroup analyses stratified by sex and age to evaluate model performance in different populations.Data from 211 486 Mount Sinai Health System patients with normal haemoglobin levels and ferritin testing were analysed. The model used demographic data, blood count indices and chemistry results to identify low ferritin levels (<30 ng/mL).
resultsOf the 211 486 patients analysed, 19.56% (n=41 368) of the patients had low ferritin levels. In the low ferritin group, the mean age was 41.28 years with 89.64% females. In contrast, the normal ferritin group had a mean age of 50.14 years with 62.02% females. The model achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.814. At a sensitivity threshold of 70%, the model had a specificity of 75.85%, with a positive predictive value of 37.6% and a negative predictive value of 92.41%. The model outperformed an alternative model based only on complete blood count indices (AUC 0.814 vs 0.741). Subgroup analysis showed that model accuracy varied by sex and age, with lower performance in premenopausal women (AUC 0.736) compared with postmenopausal women (AUC 0.793) and men (AUC of 0.832 in those under 60 years and 0.806 in those aged 60 and above).
conclusionsThe ML model provides an effective approach to screening for IDWA using readily available EHR data. Implementing this tool in clinical settings may facilitate early diagnosis of IDWA.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.