Socio-Economic Status and Iron Deficiency among Older Adults

Duncan Thomas, University of California, Los Angeles
Jed Friedman, World Bank Group
Bondan Sikoki, RAND

Iron deficiency is widespread throughout the developing world. We provide new evidence on the effect of iron deficiency on economic and social prosperity of older adults drawing on data from a random assignment treatment control design intervention. The Work and Iron Status Evaluation is an on going study following over 15,000 individuals in Central Java, Indonesia. Half the respondents receive a treatment of 100 mg of iron every week for a year; the controls receive a placebo. Compliance is monitored carefully. Contrasting changes in outcomes for treatments with changes in outcomes for controls, we are able to pin down the causal effect of iron supplementation on economic success. We focus on hours of work, type of work and income from work. In an effort to identify pathways through which iron status affects economic prosperity, we also examine changes in psycho-social health as well as self-reported indicators of overall health.