INFLUENCE OF THE IRON STATUS ON THE ATTEN TION AND INTELLECTUAL CAPABILITY OF SPANISH ADOLESCENTS

Dietetic, hematologic and biochemical data were used to assess the iro n status of a group of 64 adolescents (37 males and 27 females), aged 15 to 18 (mean age 15.94+/-0.76 years), who study in a High School in the comunidad Autonoma de Madrid. All were asked to keep a dietary rec ord during 5 days, one of which had to be a sunday. Iron intake was es timated using the Food Composition Tables of the Instituto de Nutricio n (1990). The hematologic survey determined hemoglobin hematocrit mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean cor puscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), serum iron and serum ferriti n. These data were correlated with the scores obtained in the attentio n and school capability test (AT), that gave information about the ver bal (V), reasoning (R) and calculus (C) capabilities. There is a posit ive correlation between MCV (r=0.2705), MCH (r=0.3370) ferritin (r=0.3 383) and attention. MCV (r=0.2995), MCH (r=0.3998), MCHC (r=0.3134) an d ferritin (r=0.3970) were also correlated with the speed capability s hown on the attention test and the hemoglobin level was correlated wit h the calculus capability (r=0.2905). The students who obtained higher scores in the school capability test had also better blood parameter values. This was statistically significant for serum ferritin in males students and for hemoglobin and MCHC in female students. 19.6% of the adolescents had ferritin levels lower than 12 ng/ml. Their intelligen ce test scores were lower to those who had serum ferritin greater-than -or-equal-to 12 ng/ml. This difference is statistically significant, i n both sexes, for the verbal intelligence and the school capability te st scores. Our result suggest that there are a relationship between th e iron status and the attention and school cognitive functions of the studied adolescent group.