Four studies examined impacts of iron supplementation on school children of various ages and both sexes. The first study investigated impact of iron-folic acid supplements for 60 d on cognition in 94 boys and girls aged 5-8 y. Improvement in total scores of the anemics was significantly higher than the nonanemics in 7-8-y-old children only. The second study assessed impacts of supplementation on cognition in 14 pairs of 5-6-y-old anemic boys, with clear beneficial effects on cognitive function. The third study investigated effects of varying dosages of elemental iron on cognitive function in 48 boys aged 8-15 y, with different levels of improvement. The fourth study investigated impacts of iron supplementation on 163 anemic girls aged 8-15 y with treatment and evaluations at 4 and 8 mo, with significantly improved scores in cognitive function after the eighth month.

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1. Behavioural responses of young anaemic Indian children to iron-folic acid supplements were assessed in two separate studies using the Indian adaptation of Wechsler's (1967) intelligence scale for children (WISC).2. The first study was an exploratory study in which the cognitive behaviour of 5-8-year-old children of both sexes was assessed before and after supplementation with 20 mg elemental Fe and 0.1 mg folic acid given daily for a period of 60 d.3. The supplemented children showed a significant improvement in haemoglobin (Hb) as well as the WISC scores while the control children who did not receive any supplements failed to show an improvement either in Hb or in the WISC scores. However, within the supplemented group when the initially-anaemic children were compared with the initially-non-anaemic ones, only the 7-year-old anaemic children performed significantly poorer in the tests than the non-anaemic group of the same age. The study raised the possibility that in addition to increasing the blood Hb levels, Fe-folic acid supplements may have additional benefits in improving the cognitive performance of children.4. In the second study, cognitive behaviour of fourteen matched pairs of anaemic children in the age-range of 5-6 years was assessed before and after supplementation with 40 mg Fe and 0.2 mg folk acid given daily in two divided doses or sugar placebos for a period of 60 d. The tester did not know the group to which each child belonged.5. The supplemented children showed a significant improvement in Hb as well as in the verbal and performance IQ of WISC. The control children showed no improvement in Hb but their verbal IQ improved significantly. However, there was no significant improvement in their performance IQ.6. The results indicated that Fe-folic acid supplements to anaemic children not only raised Hb levels but also improved intelligence'test results, particularly in the performance section.

There is little information available on the in vitro availability of iron jiom commonly consumed green leafy vegetables (GLV) in India. In the present investigation in vitro availability of iron jiom six commonly consumed GLV was calculated @om ionisable ions. Since ascorbic acid and oxalic acid injluence the availability of iron, these constituents were determined and their relationship to the in-vitro availability of the iron content was studied. The effect of uddition of different GLV on the in-vitro availability of iron from a habitual cereal meal was also studied since it is not known how the intrinsic iron of a cereal meal is affected by the addition of these GLV.The GLV studied were amaranth (Amaranthus spinosus), colocasia (Colocasia antiquorum), drumstick (Moringa oleifera), fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), shepu (Peucedanum graueolens), and spinach (Spinach oleracea). Each of the GLV (80 g) was cleaned, washed and cooked in a minimum amount of distilled water and homogenised, and a suitable aliquot was taken for analysis. The most commonly consumed cereal meal selected for analysis, based upon dietary surveys carried out in Baroda, was wheat chapati and potato. The preparation of the meal, as observed in the homes where the dietary surveys were carried out, was simulated in the laboratory, standard weighed quantities were homogenised and suitable aliquots were taken for analysis.Total iron was estimated using thiocyanate (Wong 1928), and ionisable iron using the in-vitro method proposed by Narasinga Rao and Prabhavathy (1978), and the in-vitro availability of iron was calculated from the ionisable iron using the prediction equation y = 0.4827 + 0.4707x, where y is % in-vitro available iron and x is the % ionisable iron (Narasinga Rao and Prabhavathy 1978). The in-vitro available iron calculated from the in-vitro studies has been shown to correlate well with results from in-vivo studies. Ascorbic acid was estimated by the 2,6-* To whom correspondence should be addressed. 125J Sci Food Agric 0022-5142/88/$03.50

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Hazards and critical control points were identified during the preparation, feeding and storage of weaning foods fed to the children (6-24 months) belonging to low income group (LIG) families using survey methods, spot and indepth observations and microbial analysis. High microbial counts were obtained for the weaning food samples procured from the families that were rated as poor for both personal hygiene and environmental sanitation. Food samples that were held at ambient temperature (25-35 degrees C) showed high counts of coliforms, AMCC, yeast and mold, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus. Spice mixtures and mop samples also revealed high counts for all these organisms. Coliforms were not isolated from the water samples of all the 10 households. However, a high count of Bacillus cereus (10(3-5)/ml) was observed in water samples of two selected households. The hazards and critical control points identified were high initial contamination of raw foods, poor environmental sanitation and personal hygiene, feeding of overnight moist foods stored at ambient temperature and insufficient steaming of these foods.

Micronutrient deficiency, whether clinical or subclinical, may affect growth, cognition and reproductive performance. In pregnant women moderate to severe deficiencies of iron, zinc and folic acid have been shown to increase risk of low birth weight, pregnancy complications and birth defects. Any attempt to introduce a micronutrient supplementation programme during pregnancy must be based on adequate data on the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies, their adverse effects and the potential for reversing these through supplementation. This paper reviews parameters for assessment of iron, zinc and folic acid deficiencies in pregnancy and the available data on prevalence of these in pregnant women in South Asia. Iron deficiency and anemia affect 50 % or more of pregnant women, the prevalence of folic acid deficiency may be up to 30±50 % and there is evidence to suggest that zinc deficiency is likely to be widespread but supportive data are scarce.

A perusal of the literature on anaemia prevalence in Nepal from 1975 onwards highlightedtwo points: anaemia prevalence is high particularly among women and childrenand that adolescent girls as a group have not been studied much, in fact, theadolescent period is one of the critical periods for anaemia. The present studyassessed prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia and morbidity problems of adolescentgirl. The results highlighted anaemia as a public health problem in girls and its prevalencewas found to be higher in Brahmins girls as compared to Newars and Chhetries.Eighty-two percent of the girls reported health problems such as aches and pains inthe body, infectious morbidities, and weakness and breathlessness. Thus, this femalepopulation groups needs to be paid special attention for health promoting interventionprogram.Key words: Anaemia, morbidity, adolescent girls.