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Purpose: The most common anemias are iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and beta-thalassemia minor (BTm). A correct differantiation of them is important in terms of preventing unnecessary iron treatment and also preventing thalassemia disease. Considering the financial limitations specifically in countries with high prevalence of thalassemia, mathematical indices, which are simpler solutions, have been used to achieve a differential diagnosis. Materials and Methods: Total of 71 cases eligible for inclusion criteria were included in the study and 11 indices were examined. 46 of the cases were in the BTm-group and 25 of the cases were in the IDA-group. The BTmgroup were accepted as positive-patient-group and the IDA-group were accepted as control-group. Diagnostic criteria were evaluated with erythrocyte indices. Results: The highest Youden Index was seen in the Sirdah index (89.48%), followed by two identical performances of the Ehsani and the Mentzer indices (84.%), indicating that these three indices showed the best diagnostic performance. There were two indices with a low performance (DOR<10): The Bessmann and Ricerca indices. Conclusion: Adding appropriate indices to complete blood count (CBC) results before further examinations will be beneficial in terms of efficient use of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]