Iron and zinc status of children aged 3 to 5 years attending Early Childhood Development centres in Venda, South Africa

ABSTRACT

This study assessed iron and zinc levels of preschoolers. 276 children were randomly chosen from 8 preschools. Weight and height were measured using standard techniques. After blood was obtained, serum zinc, iron, ferritin, transferrin saturation, and transferrin were assessed. Dietary intake was calculated using the Food Frequency Questionnaire. Prevalence of severe underweight, stunted, and acute malnutrition was 4.7%, 12.7% and 2.9%. Using transferrin saturation<5%, one-quarter were iron deficient. Using serum iron<40 μg/dl as indicative of depletion, 8% exhibited low serum iron while 18% were mildly deficient. Based on ferritin<12 μg/L, 99% had iron deficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Anthropometry
• associations
• food frequency
• nutrition
• zinc deficiency

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the University of Venda and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) for their financial assistance toward conducting the study. Furthermore, the authors acknowledge the mothers and guardians of the children, their children, and staff members at the preschools for their participation and cooperation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and the NRF does not accept any liability in regard thereto

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by University of Venda, and National Research Foundation (NRF). However, the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript