Live Events, Stress, and Illness

Iron Deficiency Associated with Higher Blood Lead in Children Living in Contaminated Environments

“…Thus, improving iron status in children could, if confirmed, help achieve important public health objectives of reducing blood lead levels below this threshold, particularly for children living in difficult-to-reach contaminated environments. Both iron deficiency and lead exposure disproportionately affect minority, poor, and urban children (10). Because iron deficiency has independent effects on cognitive functioning in children that are similar to those of lead poisoning (1,8,27,65,66), there should be important prophylactic benefits for children's health and development if organized intensive iron deficiency screening, nutritional counseling, and supplementation were implemented in areas where children are at high risk of both conditions (67).…”

“…Iron deficiency may be directly associated with lead uptake and systemic retention, or lead and iron deficiency may be independent factors, both of which may be related to another factor, such as poverty. Because the sociodemographic characteristics of children who are likely to be iron deficient also puts them at higher risk of lead exposure (10), it is not certain to what extent iron deficiency directly affects blood lead levels. Nor have any studies attempted to quantify the level of protection that sufficient iron status may confer on a child.…”

“…Adverse effects of lead include cognitive deficits, neurotoxicity, behavior disorders, slowed growth, reduced heme synthesis, and impaired hearing (1,(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9). Although health and regulatory programs designed to reduce lead exposure are proving successful (10), many young children in the United States still have blood lead levels > 10 µg/dL, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) level of concern (1,(10)(11)(12). The prevalence of elevated blood lead levels among minority, lowincome inner-city children remains several times the national average (10)(11)(12).…”

“…Although health and regulatory programs designed to reduce lead exposure are proving successful (10), many young children in the United States still have blood lead levels > 10 µg/dL, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) level of concern (1,(10)(11)(12). The prevalence of elevated blood lead levels among minority, lowincome inner-city children remains several times the national average (10)(11)(12). These same children are also more likely than others to be iron deficient, a condition that affects up to 6% of young children nationally (13)(14)(15)(16), with insufficient iron intake in up to one-third of children in some communities (17).…”

The Development of a Social Network following Geographic Relocation

“…The majority of individuals who experience stressful life events do not become seriously ill (Rabkin and Struening, 1976) • As a result, other researchers have found it necessary to modify the Holmes-Rahe model to account for individual differences. Although Holmes and Rahe (1967) viewed change itself as stressful, Vinokur and Selzer (1975) found that only undesirable events were associated with adverse health effects.…”