Article Text
Abstract
Objective It is known that non-treatment of iron deficiency anemia in early childhood results mental and cognitive retardation. In our study we aimed to examine the Denver-II developmental test performance of the children with iron-deficiency or iron- deficiency anemia before and after 3 months of the treatment.
Materials and Methods 53 children aged between 1 and 6 years whom diagnosed as iron deficent or iron deficiency anemia were studied. Denver-II test were applied to the cases before and after 3 months of the treatment. The Denver Test results were classified as normal, suspecious and abnormal.
Results Suspicious Denver-II test results were found significantly higher in iron deficient anemic infants compared with iron deficient children (p<0.01). The initial measurement level of ferritin and tranferrin saturation were found significantly low in children with suspicious test results compared with children with normal test results.
Before iron therapy, the rate of normal Denver test results in iron deficient anemic children was 42.5% and 81.5% in iron deficent children. After treatment the rate is 100% for iron deficient anemic children and 92.6% for iron deficient children.
Conclusion If iron deficiency could be treated before it becomes chronic or serious, motor, cognitive and behavioural development deficits can be prevented.