Outcome of Iron Deficiency on the Global School Performance of the Children: A case study from Nowshera, Pakistan

Aim: This study was accompanied to decipher the influence of Vitamin A deficiency and Iron Deficiency with and without anemia on the academic performance of school going children, aged 6-14 years, of District Nowshera, KPK, Pakistan. Methods: A Cross Sectional descriptive study was designed to ponder population of children, appearing in the government schools in the District Nowshera, KPK, to evaluate their nutritional status and its impact on their activities. Blood sample of 5cc was taken, Hemoglobin level was assessed by colorimetric method, the serum Ferritin level and Vitamin A levels were estimated by the commercially available Bio-Check kit and ABO Switzerland ELISA kit, respectively. Children having hemoglobin levels below age specific cutoff value, of 11.5g/dl, were considered anemic while those having ferritin levels <15µg/L were considered having iron deficiency and those with below cutoff value for both Hemoglobin and ferritin were considered as Iron deficient and anemic. Results: Vitamin A deficiency do not have any effect on cognition of children while iron deficiency with anemia and even without anemia has a significant effect on intellectual activities of children beside lethargy and inability of these children to accomplish physical tasks. Most affected areas of cognition are memory, conceptualization, concentration and non-verbal intellectual activities resulting in low global school performance of these children in Math’s and English r = 0.5 and p < 0.05 respectively. Conclusion: It is concluded from this study that iron deficiency with or without anemia has a significant correlation with intellectual activities and school performance of the children. Although these effects are more adverse in cases where children are subjected to infant age malnutrition but can be reverse with nutritional supplementary programs and adequate check on dietary habits of the children.