Observational studyClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2019
Iron Status and Associated Malaria Risk Among African Children.
Observational study in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Iron Deficiency Is Associated With Reduced Levels of Plasmodium falciparum-specific Antibodies in African Children.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of iron intake on neurobehavioural outcomes in African children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.Wellcome open research · 2021Pooled it
- Cohort profile: the Entebbe Mother and Baby Study (EMaBS).BMJ open · 2026Trial
- Associations Between Climate-Sensitive Nutrients, Clinical Malaria, and Anaemia Among Young Children in Rural Burkina Faso: An Analysis of Baseline Data From a Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2026Trial
- Associations of maternal iron deficiency with malaria infection in a cohort of pregnant Papua New Guinean women.Malaria journal · 2022Trial
- Can the supplementary consumption of baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) fruit pulp improve the hemoglobin levels and iron status of schoolchildren in Kenya? Findings of a randomized controlled intervention trial.European journal of nutrition · 2021Trial
- Risk of malaria in young children after periconceptional iron supplementation.Maternal & child nutrition · 2021Trial
- Review
- African-specific genetic loci determine iron status and risk of severe malaria and bacteremia in African children.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Iron Deficiency Diagnosis in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges, Barriers, and Opportunities.Anemia · 2026Review
- Iron homeostasis and cytokine responses in Gabonese children with febrile illness.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Iron deficiency and infection risk in Danish blood donors.Transfusion · 2025Article
- Lymph food to improve canine atopic dermatitis: a randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial in dogs with standard-care treatment.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Article
- Hormones in malaria infection: influence on disease severity, host physiology, and therapeutic opportunities.Bioscience reports · 2024Review
- Higher platelet counts and platelet factors are associated with a reduction in Plasmodium falciparum parasite density in young Malian children.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2024Article
- Longitudinal changes in iron homeostasis in human experimental and clinical malaria.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Biology of Anemia: A Public Health Perspective.The Journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- Article
- Understanding immunity: an alternative framework beyond defense and strength.Biology & philosophy · 2023Article
- Universal iron supplementation: the best strategy to tackle childhood anaemia in malaria-endemic countries?Wellcome open research · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIt remains unclear whether improving iron status increases malaria risk, and few studies have looked at the effect of host iron status on subsequent malaria infection. We therefore aimed to determine whether a child's iron status influences their subsequent risk of malaria infection in sub-Saharan Africa.
methodsWe assayed iron and inflammatory biomarkers from community-based cohorts of 1309 Kenyan and 1374 Ugandan children aged 0-7 years and conducted prospective surveillance for episodes of malaria. Poisson regression models were fitted to determine the effect of iron status on the incidence rate ratio (IRR) of malaria using longitudinal data covering a period of 6 months. Models were adjusted for age, sex, parasitemia, inflammation, and study site.
resultsAt baseline, the prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) was 36.9% and 34.6% in Kenyan and Ugandan children, respectively. ID anemia (IDA) affected 23.6% of Kenyan and 17.6% of Ugandan children. Malaria risk was lower in children with ID (IRR, 0.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.6, 0.8; P < .001) and IDA (IRR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.6, 0.9; P = .006). Low transferrin saturation (<10%) was similarly associated with lower malaria risk (IRR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.6, 0.9; P = .016). However, variation in hepcidin, soluble transferrin receptors (sTfR), and hemoglobin/anemia was not associated with altered malaria risk.
conclusionsID appears to protect against malaria infection in African children when defined using ferritin and transferrin saturation, but not when defined by hepcidin, sTfR, or hemoglobin. Additional research is required to determine causality. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: ISRCTN32849447.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.