ORIGINS, Australia’s biggest longitudinal birth study, has found a third of Australia one-year-olds have low iron – a problem which can affect speech, sleep, and appetite and potentially lead to neurocognitive, mental health and behavioural issues. Early intervention could provide a cost-effective solution for affected children and their families.
Recent years have seen a doubling in wait lists to attend child health specialist appointments to treat mental health and behavioural issues, causing financial strain on households and on the Australian health care system.
Groundbreaking longitudinal birth study, ORIGINS, a collaboration between The Kids Research Institute Australia and Joondalup Health Campus in Western Australia, has discovered that these issues could be caused by iron deficiency, and the treatment could be as simple as changes to diet and nutrition.
The Discovery
ORIGINS, the largest longitudinal study of its kind in Australia, is following 10,000 Western Australian children, from their time in the womb, into early childhood, to better understand the developmental origins of disease and reduce the rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases.
Since 2017, families participating in ORIGINS have submitted biological samples, answered questionnaires, and shared access to their routine medical information for analysis, allowing researchers to gain new insights into ways to improve child and adult health.
To date, the ORIGINS Biobank has collected 400,000 biological samples and the ORIGINS Databank has accumulated 16 million data points, forming the online ORIGINS Data Catalogue.
ORIGINS Paediatrician, Dr Katie Britton, with one-year-old ORIGINS participant, Samuel Barnett, and mother, Anna Callan
Early in the project, the ORIGINS team made an alarming discovery after analysing samples from blood tests taken during the project’s one and three-year Kids Check appointments: a third of the one-year-old’s samples were low in iron, and 60 per cent of blood samples from the three-year checks also appeared low in the vital mineral.
ORIGINS Co-Director and Professor of Paediatrics, Desiree Silva, said the findings effectively revealed an iron crisis among Australian’s toddlers, with huge implications for Australian families.
“Iron is crucial for infants and toddlers for a variety of reasons, including immunity and helping to carry oxygen in the blood to the body,” Professor Silva said.
“If iron status is low, it can mean your toddler becomes tired, lethargic, develops fussy eating habits and sleeps poorly, with a longer-term effect on learning and neurodevelopmental issues.”
The IRON Child
Convinced there was more she could do, Professor Silva created IRON Child – an ORIGINS sub-project using the ORIGINS Data Catalogue to develop mechanisms to prevent and treat issues caused by iron deficiency before they become clinically significant.
The project also aims to translate these findings to other communities to improve childhood wellness.
IRON Child Project Lead and Head of Paediatrics at Joondalup Health Campus, Dr Jamie Tan, said that by addressing issues caused by iron deficiency early, treatment could become relatively easy and cost effective for children and their families.
“We’re currently using a variety of methods to develop these prevention and treatment mechanisms, including undertaking patient focus groups to understand the barriers and enablers to detect and manage childhood iron deficiency,” Dr Tan said. “We’re also developing an AI platform to understand the prevalence and major contributing factors of iron deficiency in children one to five years old.”
IRON Child Project Lead and Head of Paediatrics at Joondalup Health Campus, Dr Jamie Tan, with one of ORIGINS’ one-year-old participants.
One aspect of the study could have particular significance both for families and the healthcare system, with the team investigating the association between low iron and child mental health, behavioural issues, and neurodevelopmental outcomes including ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Behaviour, and childhood anxiety.
“A recent study of 400 University of Western Australia students found that one in four students reported symptoms compatible with ADHD and had a significant history of iron deficiency,” Dr Tan said.
“With the huge number of specialist health appointment referrals currently overwhelming the healthcare system and Australian families, we urgently need to better understand the role iron plays in childhood mental health.”
IRON Child aims to shed light on the causal factors and impacts of iron deficiency in children and to provide patient and community-focused strategies that reduce the socio-economic pressures around iron deficiency, ultimately improving child physical and mental health.
“So far, 864 children across ORIGINS and IRON Child have been detected as being low in iron, with their guardians notified and a treatment plan provided to increase iron intake through diet and nutritional changes,” Dr Tan said.
“It’s our hope that the nutritional guidelines we’re developing for families as part of IRON Child will influence changes to national policy and provide a cost-effective treatment plan that benefits both the families and the health care system.”
For more information visit the IRON Child landing page.