Growth assessment and zinc status among children with iron deficiency in Duhok, Iraq

Abstract EN

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the body growth and serum zinc status in a sample of children with iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia.

Methods: Two hundred children attending the outpatient clinic at Hevi Pediatric Hospital in Duhok city, Kurdistan region, Iraq were included in this casecontrol study.

Among the 200 enrollees: 102 were iron deficient, including 58 anemic and 44 non-anemic according to the criteria defined by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The remaining 98 enrollees were non-anemic iron sufficient healthy children as a control.

Zinc association with height, weight and anemia relatedparameters included: hemoglobin, iron, transferrin saturation percent and ferritin were examined.

Results: Significantly lower height and weight values were observed in children with iron deficiency compared to those in controls (p= 0.037, and p= 0.041, respectively).

Of the 102 children with iron deficiency had low height or underweight (<5th percentile), 49 (48.0%) and 43 (42.2%), compared to 31 (31.6%) and 32 (32.7%) in the controls.

The mean±SD values of serum zinc levels of the children with iron deficiency was 88.2±35.5 ug/dl and 101.2±44.1 ug/dl for the controls, (p=0.01).

In the children with iron deficiency, 27.5% had moderate zinc deficiency compared to 18.3% in the controls, (p=0.042).

Serum zinc was positively associated with height, weight, Hb, iron, ferritin, and TS (%).

Conclusions: A low zinc status is present in one third of children studied particularly among iron deficiency anemia group, which has an adverse effect on growth.

This finding may have clinical implications due to the increased risk of future anemia.