Effects of an energy and micronutrient supplement on iron deficiency anemia, physical activity and motor and mental development in undernourished children in Indonesia.

OBJECTIVES

This paper reports the effects of an energy and micronutrient supplementation on mental and motor development, activity and behavior under natural conditions of children classified as iron deficient anemic and iron replete.

DESIGN

Children were randomly assigned to two different nutritional supplements: (1) 12 mg iron + either 1171 or 209 kJ; (2) 104 kJ + 0 iron. Treatment lasted for 6 months.

SETTING

The sites were six tea plantations in Pangalengan, West Java.

SUBJECTS: Eighteen anemic subjects (hemoglobin < 110 g/L; transferrin saturation (TS) < 16%) and 18 matched (sex and age) controls (hemoglobin > 110 g/L; TS > 16%) were selected from a pool of children with the following characteristics: no chronic disease; length-for-age < or = -1 standard deviation (s.d.) and weight-for-length between -1 and -2 s.d. of the median of the reference of the World Health Organization.

METHODS

Hemoglobin, ferritin, transferrin saturation and erythrocyte protoporphyrin were evaluated before and 6 months after treatment. The following psychological measurements were obtained at baseline and 2, 4 and 6 months later. Mental and motor development was evaluated with the Bayley Scale. Motor activity was measured by 4 h continuous observations at home and at day care centers. The interactions between the child and its social and physical environment were also evaluated during 4 h of observations.

RESULTS

Anemic children showed faster motor development and greater physical activity than the control children did. None of the other tests showed inter-group differences.