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ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Dietary Prevention of Obesity-related Disease Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #97602
Title: ZINC, IRON AND MICRONUTRIENT SUPPLEMENTATION EFFECTS ON COGNITIVE AND PSYCHOMOTOR FUNCTION OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN SCHOOL CHILDREN

Author
item Penland, James
item SANDSTEAD, A - UNIV TEXAS MED BRANCH
item EGGER, N - UNIV TEXAS MED BRANCH
item DAYAL, H - UNIV TEXAS MED BRANCH
item ALCOCK, N - UNIV TEXAS MED BRANCH
item PLOTKIN, R - UNIV TEXAS MED BRANCH
item ROCCO, C - UNIV TEXAS MED BRANCH
item ZAVALETA, A - UNIV TEXAS MED BRANCH

Submitted to: Experimental Biology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/17/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Two-hundred-forty Mexican-American children, aged 90 +/- 8 (mean +/- SD) months, living in Brownsville, TX, were treated with a mixture containing micronutrients (M) at 50% of the RDA or mean ESSADI (excluding Zn, Ca, Mg, P and vitamin C; folate at 25% RDA), 20 mg/d zinc plus micronutrients (Zn+M), 24 mg/d iron plus micronutrients (Fe+M), or a placebo (P) for 10 weeks in a double-blind trial. Treatments were administered by teachers 5 d each week. Cognitive and psychomotor function were assessed before and after treatment by measuring performance on a battery of computer- administrated tasks designed specifically to emphasize attention, perception, memory and reasoning, and the motor and spatial skills necessary for successful performance. Post-treatment measures were converted to percent pre-treatment measures for analysis. Compared to the other treatments and placebo, Zn+M significantly (p<0.05) improved reasoning, indicated by fewer number of trials needed to learn simple concepts (M= -14 +/- 4; Zn+M= -28 +/- 5; Fe+M = -12 +/- 4, P = -12 +/- 4). Other aspects of function were apparently unaffected by treatment, although Fe+M was frequently associated with the poorest performance. Subsequent analyses of treatment effects by grade level, sex, school and classification by percentile height showed few additional effects. These findings indicate that short-term supplementation with zinc and micronutrients may improve some aspects of cognitive function in children at increased risk for zinc deficiency because of high intakes of dietary phytate. Further research is required to determine whether these findings can be generalized to other populations of children in the United States. (Supported by The Gerber Foundation, the USDA, and The General Nutr Co)