Prevalence of iron-deficiency anaemia in Brazilian children under 5 years of age: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Fe-deficiency anaemia is considered an important public health problem both in wealthier countries and in those of medium and low income, especially in children under 5 years of age. The shortage of studies with national representativity in medium-income countries, such as Brazil, prevents the knowledge of the current situation and its associated factors. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the pooled prevalence of Fe-deficiency anaemia in Brazilian children under 5 years of age and determined the factors involved in the variability of the estimates of prevalence. We collected fifty-seven studies from the databases MEDLINE, LILACS and Web of Science, along with the reference lists of included articles. We contacted authors for unpublished data. We did not restrict publication timespan and language. This systematic review and meta-analysis was reported according to the guidelines by PRISMA. The pooled prevalence of anaemia in Brazil was 40·2 (95 % CI 36·0, 44·8) %. The age range of the child and the period of data collection were associated with the anaemia prevalence. The pooled prevalence of anaemia was higher in children under 24 months of age (53·5 v. 30·7 %; P < 0·001) and in studies with data collected before 2004 (51·8 v. 32·6 %; P = 0·001). The efforts made by the Brazilian government were successful in the reduction of anaemia in children under 5 years of age in Brazil in the evaluated period. However, prevalence remains beyond acceptable levels for this population group.

Breastfeeding moderates FTO related adiposity: a birth cohort study with 30 years of follow-up.

This study assessed the association of breastfeeding with body composition at 30 years, among subjects who have been prospectively followed since birth in a southern Brazilian city. We also evaluated whether breastfeeding moderated the association between the rs9939609 variant in the FTO gene and adiposity. At 30 years, total and predominant breastfeeding were positively associated with lean mass index and inversely with visceral fat thickness. Among subjects breastfed for <1 month, all outcomes showed monotonically increasing values with additional copies of the A allele in the FTO genotype (rs9939609). Associations among subjects breastfed for one month or longer tended to be in the same direction but showed lower magnitude and were less consistent; for all outcomes. Interactions had p values ≤ 0.05 for body mass index, fat mass index and waist circumference. Even among young adults, breastfeeding moderates the association between the FTO variant rs9939609 and body composition.