Health and educational achievement of school-aged children: The impact of anaemia and iron status on learning.
Background: Anaemia is a common blood disorder in children and is known to cause complications such as lethargy and stress on bodily organs. Children from disadvantaged communities often fail to achieve their age-related potential with iron deficiency anaemia stated as a risk factor through causing...
| Publicado en: | Health SA Gesondheid Vol. 24; pp. 1 - 9 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
African Online Scientific Information System PTY LTD
2019
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=141174558&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 141174558 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 10259848 YZ7 jtl: Health SA Gesondheid issn: 10259848 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2019 vid: 24 pid: 56831 pub: African Online Scientific Information System PTY LTD place: , <Blank> artinfo: ui: 141174558 141174558 141174558 10.4102/hsag.v24i0.1101 141174558 ppf: 1 ppct: 8 formats: tig: atl: Health and educational achievement of school-aged children: The impact of anaemia and iron status on learning. aug: au: Gwetu, Thando P. Taylor, Myra Chhagan, Meera Craib, Murray Kauchali, Shuaib affil: Discipline of Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa sug: subj: Academic Achievement In Infancy and Childhood Child Health Anemia, Iron Deficiency Epidemiology Child Development Psychomotor Performance Academic Performance In Infancy and Childhood Human Iron Blood Anemia Epidemiology Child South Africa Motor Skills Cross Sectional Studies Descriptive Research Exploratory Research Interviews Questionnaires Data Analysis Software Confidence Intervals Chi Square Test Fisher's Exact Test T-Tests Linear Regression Male Female Cognition Child: 6-12 years Male Female ab: Background: Anaemia is a common blood disorder in children and is known to cause complications such as lethargy and stress on bodily organs. Children from disadvantaged communities often fail to achieve their age-related potential with iron deficiency anaemia stated as a risk factor through causing inattentiveness and learning problems. Limited evidence exists for the adverse effects of iron deficiency anaemia on the developing child's brain from South African studies. Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the local prevalence of anaemia and iron deficiency and to examine their association with psychomotor development and school performance in school-aged children. Setting: This study was conducted in a peri-urban disadvantaged community from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods: Children aged 6 to 8 years from KwaZulu-Natal were enrolled (n = 184). Three parameters of assessment were used: clinical data, biochemical data (haemoglobin levels and iron studies) and school performance (interviews with caregivers, teachers and the children). Anaemia presence and iron deficiency were the hypothesised mediating variables through which growth, development and school performance were influenced. Results: A high point prevalence of anaemia (23.4%), iron deficiency anaemia (4.9%) and helminth infection (27.1%) was identified. Impaired cognitive assessment scores (20.7%) were prevalent in the children sampled. Behavioural problems (4.3%), poor memory function (4.3%) and impaired attention (1.1%) were of low prevalence. Anaemia and iron deficiency were both associated with impaired fine motor skills (p < 0.05). Anaemia was significantly associated with low cognitive scores (p = 0.01). Neither anaemia, iron status nor helminth infection significantly predicted school performance in the children sampled. Conclusions: The point prevalence of anaemia and iron deficiency among the sampled children was higher than the national prevalence. The sample size was however inadequate for drawing statistical conclusions about psychomotor development and school performance because of the low prevalence of the different outcomes that were examined. Practical challenges faced in conducting this investigation in rural South African schools were discussed. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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