Prevalence and associated risk factors of anemia in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
One in nine students with intellectual disability in Taiwan has anemia—screen labs and ensure adequate nutrition, especially for younger boys.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team visited special-education classrooms across Taiwan. They checked the blood of students with intellectual disability aged 6 to 18. The goal was to see how many had anemia.
What they found
One in nine students had low blood iron. Younger boys were the most likely to be anemic. The study tells us to watch labs and food intake in this group.
How this fits with other research
Pan et al. (2016) used the same schools and found that over one third of these students are overweight or obese. The two studies seem opposite—some kids lack iron while others eat too much. The shared link is poor diet quality.
Lin et al. (2010) ran blood tests the same year and showed high rates of high blood pressure and lipids. Together the three papers paint a full picture: students with ID often have hidden metabolic problems.
Chiang et al. (2013) add that these students already visit doctors 20 times a year and cost three times more than peers. Adding a quick hemoglobin check to those visits is cheap and smart.
Why it matters
You already track behavior and skill data. Add a line for “last hemoglobin date” to each student’s file. When you meet parents, ask if the doctor has checked iron. If the child is a younger boy, urge the test. Good iron means better energy for learning and therapy.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Anemia is known to be a significant public health problem in many countries. Most of the available information is incomplete or limited to special groups such as people with intellectual disability. The present study aims to provide the information of anemia prevalence and associated risk factors of children and adolescents with intellectual disability in Taiwan. We analyzed physical examination charts of 937 children and adolescents with intellectual disability at the age of 6-18 years from three special schools. We collected information on their demographic characteristics (age and gender), disability condition (type and level), BMI (weight and height) and measured blood hemoglobin concentration (Hb). There were 11.6% of children and adolescents with intellectual disability with anemia (boy <13 g/dl, girl <12 g/dl), and the factors of gender, age, disability level and BMI are significantly correlated to anemia in bivariant analyses in the study. In the logistic regression analysis, the model revealed that the factors of gender (OR=0.63, 95% CI=0.41-0.95), and age (OR=3.21, 95% CI=1.77-5.82) were variables that could significantly predict the anemia occurrence of the participants. The study highlights the anemia prevalence in children and adolescents with ID is a mild public health problem among people with intellectual disabilities, but to prevent the problems become worst; the health authority should include providing children and adolescents with adequate nutrition and appropriate health protections during early childhood.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2009.07.017