Combined deficiency of iron and vitamin D in Asian toddlers.

Abstract

SUMMARY One hundred and forty five Asian children born at Sorrento Maternity Hospital, Birmingham, were reviewed at the age of 22 months. A significant association of iron deficiency and poor vitamin D state was found. Two fifths of the children were anaemic, two fifths had a low plasma concentration of vitamin D, and one fifth had both features. This was more than simple overlap of the two deficiencies; the children with low plasma vitamin D concentrations had significantly lower concentrations of haemoglobin and serum iron. On the other hand, the deficiencies were not merely individual features of generally poor nutrition; growth and other measures of protein energy nutrition were slightly better in these children, and their plasma zinc concentration was no lower than in the children without deficiencies. It seems, therefore, that child health surveillance as currently practised-for example, growth monitoring, clinical signs, etc-will not detect these problems unless a haemoglobin determination is included. In view of the association of poor iron and vitamin D state combined prophylaxis is desirable. At present, strategies for preventing rickets in this country are not combined with attempts to detect or prevent iron deficiency. In our opinion they should be and the options are discussed.

Dietary and lifestyle factors affecting plasma vitamin D levels in Asian children living in England

“…The association between iron de®ciency and vitamin D de®ciency has been described previously in the UK in Asian pre-school children (Grindulis et al, 1986) and a high incidence of both rickets and haemoglobin levels below 110 gal in a more recent study in the Yemen (Banajeh et al, 1997). This may be because dietary and lifestyle factors lead to de®ciencies in both nutrients.…”

“…A study published in 1986 found that 40% of Asian children aged 20 months studied in Birmingham (UK) had serum vitamin D levels of less than 25 nmolal (Grindulis et al, 1986). More recently children of Asian, Middle Eastern and African immigrant parents in Australia (Pillow et al, 1995), and Middle Eastern children in the Netherlands (Meulmeester et al, 1990) were shown to have low vitamin D levels or rickets.…”

Vitamin D: seasonal and regional differences in preschool children in Great Britain

“…Vitamin D supplements, which are currently provided to only around 15% of children in this age group, can completely prevent this decline. Studies of Asian families, both during the 1980s (Grindulis et al, 1986) and also very recently (Lawson and Thomas, 1998;Lawson et al, 1998) have indicated a very high prevalence of low plasma 25OH-D concentrations in this high-risk group of the British population, demonstrating the continuing need for health education on this subject. The low rate of use of vitamin supplements in this age group overall suggests that there may be a need to promote, by educational programmes, wider vitamin D supplementation as being bene®cial for optimum nutrition of pre-school children in the United Kingdom (Department of Health, 1998).…”

Hb level in relation to vitamin D status in healthy infants and toddlers

“…In contrast to Yoon et al (31) and Grindulis et al (12) , Heldenberg et al (13) found that severe Fe-deficiency ANOVA was performed to test the differences between variables; P , 0?05 was considered as statistically significant. *Anaemia was defined as Hb , 11 g/100 ml blood.…”