Iron deficiency and behaviour pattern in preschool children

Abstract

A study on "Iron deficiency and behaviour pattern in preschool children" was taken forth to evaluate the possible role of iron deficiency on the behaviour development of preschool children. Of the 50 preschool children surveyed, 25 children were normal and the remaining 25 were iron deficient. The socio-economic pattern, health profile, dietary profile and behaviour profile were evaluated. Of the families surveyed, majority were of nuclear type, comprising of about 3 to 5 members. The health profile evaluated indicated that in the normal group most of the children were born to non-anaemic mothers while in the case of the iron deficient group, a larger portion of the children were born to highly anaemic mothers. Considering the birth weights of the normal group, majority had normal birth weights, while in the iron deficient group the major cases were low birth weight babies. Considering the physical state, standard head and chest circumference measures were observed for children of normal group while the iron deficient children had lower values. Statistically this fact was reinforced since a significant

difference was observed for both the groups for both physical state and health status. Dietary profile with reference to the food consumption pattern of iron deficient children were inadequate when compared with normal children. Similar inadequacies were observed in cases of food intake and nutrient intake. For the iron deficient children most of the foods and nutrient were inadequate in terms of Recommended Dietary Allowance especially their iron intake was low which could be the reason for their deficiency. The behavioural development of the children assessed revealed that in comparison with the normal group, the children of iron deficient group performed poorly in the intelligence tests. Also as the extent of deficiency increased their concentration and attention span decreased resulting in poor performance. However the variations observed could be due to other environmental or socio-economic factors. The respondents with low iron status as in case of iron deficient group, reflected in their low haemoglobin, Mean Corpuscular Volume and serum iron levels and higher Total Iron Binding Capacity values. In the present study, a positive correlation was observed between intelligence test scores and haemoglobin, serum iron and Mean Corpuscular Volume, while with Total Iron Binding Capacity there

was a negative correlation for both the groups. The significance was higher for the iron deficient group which establishes the fact that the variation in the blood parameters and intelligence test scores were more prominent when the extent of the deficiency increased. As the intensity of deficiency increases, more will be the chances for irreversible impairment. Here arises the necessity for iron therapy .