ReviewCurrent developments in nutrition2019
Guts, Germs, and Iron: A Systematic Review on Iron Supplementation, Iron Fortification, and Diarrhea in Children Aged 4-59 Months.
Review in Current developments in nutrition, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nutrition-specific interventions for preventing and controlling anaemia throughout the life cycle: an overview of systematic reviews.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Evaluating the Role of School-Based Weekly Iron-Folic Acid Supplementation in Shaping Common Morbidity and Growth Outcomes Among Adolescent Girls: Evidence From a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in Central Ethiopia Region.Maternal & child nutrition · 2026Trial
- Programming the Infant Gut: How Maternal and Early Life Nutrition Shape the Infant Microbiome and Long-term Health-A Narrative Review.Molecular nutrition & food research · 2026Review
- Infantile Anemia and Iron Treatments Affect the Gut Microbiome of Young Rhesus Monkeys.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Review
- The Effect of Oral Iron Supplementation/Fortification on the Gut Microbiota in Infancy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Biology of Anemia: A Public Health Perspective.The Journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- The intersection of undernutrition, microbiome, and child development in the first years of life.Nature communications · 2023Review
- Benefits and Risks of Early Life Iron Supplementation.Nutrients · 2022Review
- Fecal Iron Measurement in Studies of the Human Intestinal Microbiome.Current developments in nutrition · 2022Review
- Gut Microbiome Alterations following Postnatal Iron Supplementation Depend on Iron Form and Persist into Adulthood.Nutrients · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe impact of iron supplements and iron fortification on diarrhea in children is controversial, with some studies reporting an increase and others reporting no effect.
objectiveThe aim of the study was systematically assess the published literature on oral iron supplementation and fortification to evaluate its impact on diarrhea incidence among children aged 4-59 mo.
methodsRandomized controlled trials of oral iron supplementation or iron fortification that reported diarrheal outcomes in children aged 4-59 mo were identified from a systematic search of 5 databases.
resultsOf the 906 records identified, 19 studies were found to fit the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. However, variable case definitions for diarrhea made meta-analysis impossible. Of the 19 studies, 7 (37%) studies showed a significant increase, either in overall diarrhea incidence or within a specific subgroup of the population, between iron-supplemented and control groups. Subgroups included children who were iron-replete and children undergoing their first month of iron intervention. Two studies reported an increase in bloody diarrhea. The remaining 12 (63%) studies showed no difference between iron-supplemented and control groups.
conclusionsStudies on iron supplementation and fortification use divergent case definitions for diarrhea. A number of studies (37%) showed an increase in overall diarrhea incidence or within a specific subgroup of the population, between iron-supplemented and control groups, but the majority (63%) did not. In addition, there was no clear relation between diarrhea and type of intervention or amount of iron administered observed. In future studies, we recommend that diarrhea be clearly defined and consistently recorded as a secondary outcome. Antibiotic status of participants receiving iron should also be collected to help assess possible drug interactions resulting in a "red stool effect." Finally, further microbiome research is required to better understand the effects of oral iron on specific bacterial species in the colon.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.