Jena Doom, doctoral candidate (ICD), working with Megan Gunnar, Regents Professor and Director, both at the Institute of Child Development, and colleagues, have found that iron deficiency predicts lower IQ scores and poor higher thinking skills in children who have been adopted from institutional settings like orphanages. Doom and colleagues conducted the longitudinal study using data from 55 children who had been adopted from international institutions.  The published results appear in Beyond Stimulus Deprivation: Iron Deficiency and Cognitive Deficits in Postinstitutionalized Children in the journal Child Development.

“Our study shows that both the duration of institutional care and nutrition significantly affect children’s cognitive functioning even after they are placed in a nurturing home,” said Doom. However, the researchers say, “These findings are important for pediatricians, psychologists, and other specialists working with children adopted internationally because they highlight the importance of examining both nutritional deficiencies and children’s pre-adoptive experience during evaluation and treatment.” With this information, it is now possible for children to receive iron supplements or cognitive interventions that can address each child’s needs.

Doom and Gunnar published the article with colleagues Michael K. Georgieff, professor, Institute of Child Development and the Department of Pediatrics, Maria G. Kroupina, associate professor, Global Pediatrics; Kristin Frenn, MA, Anita Fuglestad, research associate, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and Stephanie M. Carlson, professor, ICD.