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Is It Possible to Predict the Iron Status from an Infant's Diet History?
Hyung Jin Kim1, Dong Hyun Kim, Ji Eun Lee
1Department of Pediatrics, Inha University Hospital, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
Insights
A new infant nutrition history score can help screen for iron deficiency anemia (IDA). Higher scores correlate with lower hemoglobin levels, aiding in early detection of this common nutritional problem.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Nutritional Science
- Hematology
Background:
- Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a prevalent global nutritional issue.
- Effective screening methods for infant IDA are crucial for early intervention.
- Understanding infant nutrition history can offer insights into nutritional status.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and evaluate a novel screening method for iron nutrition in infants.
- To assess the utility of infant nutrition history in identifying iron deficiency anemia.
- To create a scoring system based on dietary and feeding practices.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective study of 181 infants with IDA and 52 controls (6-36 months).
- Data collected via questionnaire on weaning age, food types, weaning duration, iron content, and breastfeeding.
- An 'IDA score' was calculated based on these nutritional history parameters.
Main Results:
- The mean IDA score was significantly higher in the iron deficiency anemia group (7.8±2.6) compared to controls (5.6±2.1).
- A cutoff score of 6 demonstrated 86.8% sensitivity and 36% specificity for IDA detection.
- An increasing IDA score showed a negative correlation with hemoglobin levels.
Conclusions:
- The developed IDA score shows potential for screening iron deficiency anemia in infants.
- While not highly specific, the score effectively identifies individuals at risk, indicated by higher scores and lower hemoglobin.
- This non-invasive scoring system offers a promising approach for early detection of IDA in pediatric populations.
Purpose:
Iron deficiency remains a very common nutritional problem despite the improvement in nutrition and increased understanding of methods for its prevention. Thus, we try to create a new method for screening iron nutrition through infant nutrition history.
Methods:
Among the children who visited Inha University Hospital from March 2006 to July 2012, 181 children with iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and 52 children without IDA ranging from 6 to 36 months of age were reviewed in this study. We used the age when they began to wean food, the type of sort weaning foods, the time required for successful weaning, iron content in weaning foods, and the duration of breastfeeding for scoring infant nutrition history based on a questionnaire.
Results:
The mean score of the IDA group was 7.8±2.6 points, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (5.6±2.1) (p=0.000). If we set up the cutoff value at 6 points, this screening has 86.8% sensitivity and 36% specificity. In addition, as the IDA score increased, there was a falling trend of hemoglobin.
Conclusion:
The IDA score does not have high specificity or high sensitivity. However, this study conveys that those patients who record a high score have low hemoglobin. Therefore, we suggest this score system for screening more IDA patients via nonpainful techniques.
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