THE EFFECTS OF IRON DEFICIENCY AND IRON THERAPY ON
INFANTS DEVELOPMENTAL TEST PERFORMANCE
Akman M 1, Okur V2,Cebeci D3
1 Haseki State Hospital, Family, Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey
2 Haseki State Hospital, Pediatrics, Istanbul, Turkey
3 Marmara University Medical School Public Health Department,
Istanbul, Turkey
Objective: To assess the effects of iron deficency
on developmental test scores in infants, 108 babies 6-30 months of age were
tested with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) and Denver
Developmental Screening Test before and after 3 months follow-up.
Methods: Between
108 subjects 37 were having iron deficiency anemia (IDA), 40 were
non-anemic iron deficient (NAID) and 31 were non- anemic iron sufficient
(Control). In a single-blind randomized, controlled study 3 months oral
iron therapy administered to IDA and NAID groups.
Results: Subjects with iron deficency showed
significantly lower developmental test scores compared to their iron
sufficient peers (p< 0.05). After 3 months of iron treatment lower test
scores were no longer observed among the IDA and NAID groups whose anemia
and iron deficency were also corrected.
Conclusion: These findings support that iron
deficiency may cause developmental delay in infants and these advers effects
can be reversed by iron therapy.