Infant iron deficiency, iron supplementation, and psychosocial stress as predictors of neurocognitive development in Chilean adolescents

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of the current study was to examine the unique and joint contributions of iron deficiency, iron supplementation, and psychosocial stress in infancy and stress in adolescence to neurocognitive functioning in adolescence. Methods: The current study (N = 796; M age = 14.4y) involved a prospective cohort of low- and middle-socioeconomic status adolescents in Santiago, Chile. As infants, they had participated in an iron supplementation trial. Infant iron status was assessed at 12–18 months, and mothers answered questions about family psychosocial stress at 6–12 months and in adolescence (maternal depressive symptoms, home support for child development, stressful life events, father absence, socioeconomic status, and parental education). Neurocognitive functioning was assessed in adolescence using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, Stockings of Cambridge, Trail Making Test, Purdue Pegboard Test, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Results: Greater psychosocial stress in infancy predicted less risk-taking, poorer planning abilities and fluid cognition, and slower processing speed in adolescence. Iron deficiency anemia in infancy predicted less risk-taking. Greater adolescent psychosocial stress predicted difficulties in set-shifting. There were no interactions between infant psychosocial stress and iron deficiency predicting adolescent neurocognitive functioning. Conclusion: These results suggest that interventions to reduce infant psychosocial stress may be more likely to prevent multiple neurocognitive deficits in adolescence than interventions to reduce infant iron deficiency.