SynthesisClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2021
Iron Deficiency Is Associated With Reduced Levels of Plasmodium falciparum-specific Antibodies in African Children.
Synthesis in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Trial
- Host iron deficiency protects againstScience advances · 2026Article
- Iron Deficiency Diagnosis in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges, Barriers, and Opportunities.Anemia · 2026Review
- Iron deficiency and vaccine efficacy: A mini-review of immunological interplay and evidence across vaccine types.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Review
- Increased Plasmodium falciparum EBA175RIII-V antibody titres despite a 13-month malaria mass testing, treatment, and tracking intervention in a high malaria endemic community in Ghana.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Iron, Hepcidin, and Immunity.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Cellular iron governs the host response to malaria.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Universal iron supplementation: the best strategy to tackle childhood anaemia in malaria-endemic countries?Wellcome open research · 2023Review
- Article
- COVID-19 vaccination in patients with heart failure: a position paper of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.European journal of heart failure · 2021Article
- How the cookie crumbled, and the need to strike while the iron is hot.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 8 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIron deficiency (ID) and malaria are common causes of ill-health and disability among children living in sub-Saharan Africa. Although iron is critical for the acquisition of humoral immunity, little is known about the effects of ID on antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum malaria.
methodsThe study included 1794 Kenyan and Ugandan children aged 0-7 years. We measured biomarkers of iron and inflammation, and antibodies to P. falciparum antigens including apical merozoite antigen 1 (anti-AMA-1) and merozoite surface antigen 1 (anti-MSP-1) in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.
resultsThe overall prevalence of ID was 31%. ID was associated with lower anti-AMA-1 and anti-MSP-1 antibody levels in pooled analyses adjusted for age, sex, study site, inflammation, and P. falciparum parasitemia (adjusted mean difference on a log-transformed scale (β) -0.46; 95 confidence interval [CI], -.66, -.25 P < .0001; β -0.33; 95 CI, -.50, -.16 P < .0001, respectively). Additional covariates for malaria exposure index, previous malaria episodes, and time since last malaria episode were available for individual cohorts. Meta-analysis was used to allow for these adjustments giving β -0.34; -0.52, -0.16 for anti-AMA-1 antibodies and β -0.26; -0.41, -0.11 for anti-MSP-1 antibodies. Low transferrin saturation was similarly associated with reduced anti-AMA-1 antibody levels. Lower AMA-1 and MSP-1-specific antibody levels persisted over time in iron-deficient children.
conclusionsReduced levels of P. falciparum-specific antibodies in iron-deficient children might reflect impaired acquisition of immunity to malaria and/or reduced malaria exposure. Strategies to prevent and treat ID may influence antibody responses to malaria for children living in sub-Saharan Africa.
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.