Effects of iron status on attentional functioning in young Rwandan women (619.5)

Abstract

The relation between iron status and attentional functioning was explored in Rwandan university women who participated in a RCT assessing the efficacy of biofortified beans on improving iron status. A subsample of the subjects (n=157, 18‐27 y) underwent testing of perceptual and cognitive functioning at three time points. Here, we present cross‐sectional analyses of baseline performance on the 3 attentional tasks: 1) Simple Reaction Time (SRT): test of perceptual and processing speed; 2) Go/No‐Go (GNG): test of inhibitory control; 3) Attentional Network Task (ANT): test of 3 critical functions of attention: low‐level attentional capture (alerting), high‐level attentional selection (orienting), and volitional control under distraction (conflict). Women were categorized as: iron sufficient (IS), iron deficient (ID) or iron deficient anemic (IDA). SRT reaction times were longer in the IDA and ID grps vs. the IS grp (p<0.01 for both). ANT alerting and orienting reaction times were longer (better) in the IS vs. IDA grps (p=0.01 and <0.01, respectively) and the IS vs. ID grps for orienting (p=0.02). Further analyses of iron status, by quartile, revealed a relation between serum ferritin quartiles and reaction times for SRT (p<0.0001), GNG (p=0.02), ANT alerting (p<0.05), and ANT orienting (p=0.01). No differences in outcome variables were found for hemoglobin or transferrin receptor quartiles. We conclude that better iron status is associated with enhanced (faster) low‐ and high‐level attentional functioning in young women.Grant Funding Source: Supported by: HarvestPlus/IFPRI