Abstract
Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a common micronutrient deficiency worldwide in infants. Iron deficiency anemia, during infancy, can have long‐lasting detrimental effects on the immune and neural systems; the damage is irreversible. This study aimed to build a prediction model to predict the potential risk of IDA among infants. To collect relevant information for model building, we recruited 528 infants from Fenglin Community Health Service Center in Shanghai, China, and collected the information of infants and their parents by using a structured questionnaire. We also got the blood routine examination results of the infants. Then, we used a multilayer perceptron model (MLP) of the neural network model in IBM SPSS Modeler 18.0 to construct the prediction model. Of the 528 included infants, 80 (15.2%) of them had lower hemoglobin values (<110 g/L) and were finally diagnosed with IDA. Based on the accuracy of different models, the model with the highest accuracy rate (97.3%) was chosen, and all the preselected 26 variables were included in the model. After the modeling, the results indicated that the number of months of exclusive breastfeeding was the most important predictive variable, followed by the mother having anemia during pregnancy, and then the number of months of feeding the infant with iron‐fortified rice flour. The model has good sensitivity (100%) and specificity (100%). By using this model, we can predict the potential risk of an infant having IDA and can take the initiative to prevent iron deficiency through the improvement of feeding methods.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that approximately 300 million children globally had anemia in 2011 and that iron deficiency is thought to be the most common cause of anemia (WHO, 2016a)
The results of our study indicate that the number of months of exclusive breastfeeding, whether mothers had anemia during pregnancy, and the number of months of adding iron-fortified rice flour rank in the top three standings
We found that maternal anemia during pregnancy is the second crucial predictive variable of Iron deficiency anemia (IDA)
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that approximately 300 million children globally had anemia in 2011 and that iron deficiency is thought to be the most common cause of anemia (WHO, 2016a). This is true in developing countries, including China. The anemia prevalence rate of Chinese children under 5 years old in 2010 was as high as 12.6% (Ministry of Health & P.R. China, 2013). The Chinese “The National Nutrition Plan (2017–2030)” has advocated that effective intervention strategies should be implemented to bring down the anemia prevalence in children under 5 years old and pregnant women to 10% or lower by 2030 (General Office of the State Council & P.R. China, 2017). The necessary steps needed to reduce this anemia prevalence are still a significant public health challenge
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