Investigating the awareness and performance of mothers of 6-24 month infants in using iron supplementation in 2013

iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a main global concern. In developing countries, it is considered as the most prevalent nutritional problem among infants and children. The present research sought to investigate the awareness and performance of mothers who had 6-24 month old infants in the consumption of iron supplementation. the present research is a descriptive/analytical cross sectional study in which 600 children who were 6 to 24 months old participated in Bandar Abbas. They were selected through the cluster sampling method. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire designed by the researcher. Its reliability and validity were already established. The collected data were analyzed via SPSS ver. 16. The significance level was set at <.05. from among the 600 participants, 56.2% were male and 43.8% were female. 51.7% used iron supplementation regularly. The most common reason for the irregular use of the supplementation was mother’s forgetfulness. Significant correlations were obtained between the use of iron supplementation and mother’s awareness (p<0.001), the number of children (p=0.017), the order of birth (p=.040), mother’s education (P<.001) and place of residence (p=.001). In the present study between mother's knowledge of Iron with a statistically significant association was observed. Less than half of the mothers had poor knowledge. Therefore, the development of programs to raise awareness of mothers seems necessary.