Study on Effectiveness of Daily/ Weekly Iron, folic Acid Supplementation With or Without Intensive Health Education among Adolescent Anemic School Girls of Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)

According to estimation by WHO more than two billion people are affected by iron deficiency anemia. Anemia is currently one of the most common and intractable nutritional problems globally. Nutritional anemia in India is common morbidity seen in late adolescent and young female population. There are many conflicting opinions regarding dosage of iron & folic acid supplementation for managing this simple nutritional deficiency disorders. Anemia has been defined as hemoglobin less than12 gm % in adolescent girls, with Hemoglobin level between 10 to 11.9 gm %, 7 to 9.9 gm % and less than7 gm % are termed as mild, moderate and severe anemia respectively. Hemoglobin estimation was done at the beginning and end of the study. The mean age of study subjects in daily iron & folic acid supplementation, weekly iron & folic acid supplementation and weekly iron & folic acid supplementation with health education group was 15.82, 15.79 & 15.70 years respectively. Their mean & Sd pre-intervention Hemoglobin was 10.10.13 gm/dl, 10.280.15 gm/dl and 9.940.13 gm/dl respectively. The mean & Sd post-intervention Hb was 12.320.12 gm/dl, 12.390.13 gm/dl and 12.750.15 gm/dl. The present study shows clearly advantage of weekly iron and folic acid therapy among adolescent school girls of Varanasi district over daily iron therapy. Mean rise of hemoglobin % in daily and weekly groups are almost similar (Table-1) whereas adverse drug reaction percentage is less in weekly supplemented group (Group B & C).