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.
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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