Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Daily Iron Requirements in Healthy Indian Children and Adolescents

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Indian Pediatrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to define the estimated average requirement and the recommended dietary allowance of iron for Indian children and adolescents.

Methods

The Estimated average requirement was derived for children aged 1–17y, from the mean bioavailability-adjusted daily physiological iron requirement, which in turn was estimated using a factorial method. This consisted of mean daily iron losses from the body and additional iron required for tissue growth and storage, while also defining the variance of each factor to derive the Recommended dietary allowance.

Results

The estimated average requirement of iron for children ranged from 5.6 to 11.0 mg/d in children aged 1–9y. For adolescents aged 10–17y, these ranged from 10.8 to 18.4 mg/d and 15.4 to 18.5 mg/d for adolescent boys and girls, respectively.

Conclusion

New estimates of estimated average requirement for iron in Indian children are presented, and same may be used to inform iron supplementation and food fortification policies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Indian Council of Medical Research. Nutrient requirements and Recommended Dietary Allowances for Indians. A Report of the Expert Group of the Indian Council of Medical Research, National Institute of Nutrition Hyderabad; 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Anemia Mukt Bharat. Intensified National Iron Plus Initiative (I-NIPI): Operational Guidelines for Programme Manager; 2018.

  3. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Gazette of India: Notification; Part-2: Standards on Fortification; released on 2nd August, 2018.

  4. Otten JJ, Hellwig JP, Meyers LD. eds. Dietary Reference Intakes: The Essential Guide to Nutrient Requirements, National Academy of Sciences. The National Academies Press Washington DC; 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  5. World Health Organization. WHO Child Growth Standards - Length/height-for-age, Weight-for-age, Weight-for-length, Weight-for-height and Body Mass Index-for-age — Methods and Development; 2006.

  6. Hallberg L. Iron requirements, iron balance and iron deficiency in menstruating and pregnant women. In: Hallberg L, & Asp N G. editors. Iron Nutrition in Health and Disease. John Libbey & Co.; 1996. p. 165–182.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ghosh S, Sinha S, Thomas T, Sachdeva HPS, Kurpad AV. Revisiting dietary iron requirement and deficiency in Indian women: Implications for food iron fortification and supplementation. J Nutr. 2019;149:366–71.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Kodkany BS, Bellad RM, Mahantshetti NS, Westcott JE, Krebs NF, Kemp JF, et al. Biofortification of pearl millet with iron and zinc in a randomized controlled trial increases absorption of these minerals above physiologic requirements in young children. J Nutr. 2013;143:1489–93.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Nair KM, Brahmam GN, Radhika MS, Dripta RC, Ravinder P, Balakrishna N, et al. Inclusion of guava enhances non-heme iron bioavailability but not fractional zinc absorption from a rice-based meal in adolescents. J Nutr. 2013;143:852–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Cook JD, Flowers CH, Skikne BS. The quantitative assessment of body iron. Blood. 2003;101:3359–63.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Nair KM, Iyengar V. Iron content, bioavailability and factors affecting iron status of Indians. Indian J Med Res. 2009;130:634–45.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc: A report of the Panel on Micronutrients. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; Institute of Medicine; 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  13. National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau. Diet and Nutritional Status of Rural Population. Technical report no 26, National Institute of Nutrition, ICMR, Hyderabad; 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Larson L, Thomas T, Kurpad A, Martorell R, Hoddinott J, Swaminathan S, et al. Anemia in women and children in Uttar Pradesh: a path analysis of the associations between nutritional, environmental, infectious, and genetic determinants. Poster presented in Annual meeting of American Society of Nutrition, 2018. Available from: https://www.eventscribe.com/2018/posters/ASNScientific/SplitViewer.asp?PID=MjE0OTg1OTczNzY; Accessed July 19, 2018.

  15. Bansal PG, Toteja GS, Bhatia N, Vikram NK, Siddhu A, Garg AK, et al. Deficiencies of serum ferritin and vitamin B12, but not folate, are common in adolescent girls residing in a slum in Delhi. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2015;85:14–22.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Funding: This work was supported by the Margdarshi Fellowship of the India Alliance to AVK, Fellowship no: IA/M/14/1/501681.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics, St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Santu Ghosh & Tinku Thomas

  2. Department of Physiology, St. John’s Medical College, St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, 560 034, India

    Nirupama Shivakumar & Anura V. Kurpad

  3. Division of Nutrition, St. John’s Research Institute, St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Srishti Sinha

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research, New Delhi, India

    Harshpal Singh Sachdev

Authors
  1. Santu Ghosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Srishti Sinha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nirupama Shivakumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tinku Thomas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Harshpal Singh Sachdev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Anura V. Kurpad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anura V. Kurpad.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ghosh, S., Sinha, S., Shivakumar, N. et al. Daily Iron Requirements in Healthy Indian Children and Adolescents. Indian Pediatr 56, 551–555 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-019-1552-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-019-1552-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation