Does Iron-Deficiency Anemia Affect Child Development?
The global prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) is extremely high. The possibility that IDA affects children’s development is therefore a serious public health problem and has implications not only for individuals’ development but also for national development in countries with high prevalence. Although infants with mild-to-moderate IDA have poor development both concurrently and in later childhood,1,2 a causal link is not well-established.3 A major problem is that IDA is associated with many socioeconomic disadvantages1,2 that are likely to have independent effects on children’s development. Therefore randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) of iron supplementation are essential to allow causal inferences. Trials of treating IDA indicate whether the effects are remediable whereas preventive trials provide the strongest evidence of causality. Surprisingly few RCTs of iron supplementation have been conducted in infants. Previous treatment trials have often lacked randomized designs an
