Iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia in children: physiology, epidemiology, aetiology, clinical effects, laboratory diagnosis and treatment: literature review

Objective: This review article aims to describes iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia in children including its physiology, epidemiology, aetiology, clinical effects, laboratory diagnosis and treatment. Background: Iron deficiency is a nutritional disorder, it is the most common nutritional disorder worldwide. There are three main stages of reduction of body iron which is a continuous process from iron depletion followed by iron deficiency and then iron deficiency anaemia. Iron is a cation necessary for blood formation. Apart from its role in haemoglobin, it is also needed in various enzyme reactions and cytochromes. It is distributed as an active metabolite and also in storage pools. Iron is an essential component of virtually all living cells, specifically human cells. Iron is an essential micronutrient. it occurs as haem (organic) and non-haem iron (non-organic) in the diet. Maternal supplies are the source of the developing fetus iron stores. 41A normal term infant is born with iron stores for the first four to 6 months after birth except maternal iron deficiency is severe. Iron is also needed for growth and metabolism in the post-natal life. It has been estimated that 39% of children younger than 5 years and 48% of children between 5 to 14 years are iron deficient in non-industrialized world, as against 20% in less than 5 years and 5.9% in 5–14 years from industrialized world by the World Health Organization. Children in the developing world are especially vulnerable because of the increased requirements of growth, diets with low iron bioavailability, and high helminthic burden. Methods: A search of publications before October 2020 was done. It was limited to publications in English. Searches were performed using PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, Psych Info and CINAHL, Google, Access to Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI), Health Inter Network Access to Research Initiative (HINARI), JSTOR ARCHIVES, EBSCO HOST, Ohio LINK, DOABOOK. Conclusions: This review article describes the iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia in children: physiology, epidemiology, aetiology, clinical effects, laboratory diagnosis and treatment.