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The Relationship Between Infant Iron Status, Maternal‐Infant Interactions, and Cultural Ideology
Author(s) -
McNeill Emily N.,
Nevins Julie E.H.,
Canfield Richard L.,
Haas Jere D.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.671.17
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , developmental psychology , confounding , affect (linguistics) , anemia , ferritin , medicine , immigration , maternal sensitivity , psychology , pediatrics , psychiatry , paleontology , history , communication , archaeology , pathology , biology
Background Although there is no clinical definition of iron deficiency (ID) in infants younger than 12 months, studies have shown that low levels of serum ferritin in early infancy is linked to deficits in behavior, cognition, and motor activity. These deficits can negatively affect the infant's social interactions with the mother and other caretakers, and thus social and cognitive development. Objective To describe the relationship between iron status in early infancy, the quality of maternal‐infant interactions, and maternal cultural ideology. Methods In this study, 4–6 month old infants (n= 64) and their mothers were evaluated with PROCESS, the Pediatric Review of Children's Environmental Support and Stimulation. The PROCESS, derived from the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment‐Inventory for Infants (HOME), was designed to assess maternal caregiving and infant response in a clinical setting, and provides scores in four categories: maternal warmth, caring, responsiveness, and sensitivity in a clinical setting. As the PROCESS is a culturally sensitive measure, some questions were removed from the total score to form a new scale named “Cultural Context.” Infant anemia and iron stores were assessed with hemoglobin (Hb) <11.0 g/dL and serum ferritin, respectively. Associations between infant iron levels and the overall quality of the mother‐infant interactions, as well as each separate category, were estimated using linear regression models in SPSS. Potential confounders that were tested include maternal education and age, infant age, birth weight, number of previous children and the Cultural Context scale of the PROCESS. Results Infant Hb alone did not significantly predict the quality of maternal‐infant interactions (b=1.6 ± 1.067 (SE), p=.137). When the confounder Cultural Context was included in the model infant Hb became positively associated with the quality of maternal‐infant interactions (b=1.7 ± 0.8, p<.05). Infant anemia status was not significantly associated with the quality of maternal‐infant interactions Infant serum ferritin was also not significantly associated with any category of the maternal‐infant interaction nor the total PROCESS score. Conclusion These results could be important in predicting the quality of maternal‐infant interactions based on infant Hb and highlight the importance of including cultural biases in socio‐behavioral analyses. Support or Funding Information Funded by USDA/CUAES (#NYC‐399413) & Cornell Human Ecology Alumni Association; JN supported by NSF GRFP