Designing and Evaluation of an Education Program to Decrease Iron Deficiency Anemia among Adolescent Girls

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency throughout the world. Adolescent girls are considered as the high risk group consisting of a high proportion of the IDA. In patients in all age groups, including the adolescent girls, low dietary iron intake is the major cause of IDA. In this study we attempted to determine whether a nutritional educational program could effectively reduce the prevalence of iron deficiency among adolescent girls. For this purpose a pre -and post- clinical trial study was designed and 43 girls from a high school in Tehran, who had some criteria for inclusion and were on the negative iron balance based on the labratory data (Hb, Ret, MCV, MCR, MCRC, serum iron, TIBC, percent of saturation of TIBC & serum ferritin), were selected. Then the required data includings socioeconomic characteristics, knowledge, attitude, practice and nutritional habits were gathered. Three months after designing and performing the educational programs, the post test was done.Results aud As a result of this intervention, a significant change in the knowledge, attitude and practice was observed towards the improvement of the quality of iron bioavailability in the diet of adolescent girls. The mean of the daily heme iron intake was increased from 43% mg to 86% mg (P