The Study of Iron-Drop Supplementation Status on 6-24 Month Infants in Yazd Health Centers

Iron deficiency (ID) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are among the mostcommon public health problems worldwide especially in the developing countries. Thereare approximately two billion people in the world suffering from IDA. One of the problemsof iron supplementation, including iron drop, is failing or noncompliance with consumingsupplementary products. The aim of this survey was to determine the consumption status of iron-drop supplementation by 6-24 month infants in Yazd. Totally 770 mothers having 6-24 months infants participated in this survey. At first they were randomly selected from 8 health centers among all health centers of the city and then the sample size was selected regarding the covered population of each center. Sampling method was systematic random sampling. Each mother was invited to center and completed the questionnaire by interview. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software. In general, 84.8% of the mothers used iron drop supplement for their infants so that this rate was significantly higher in rural areas than urban areas. The mean point of starting with supplementary iron drop was 5.9±1 months and 78.4% of mothers started giving irondrop from 6- month infants. The main causes of failing to use drop were forgetting (33.3%), teeth blackened (27.9%), constipation (8.2%) and unavailability (6.8%). Compared with other regions, compliance with and using iron drop is appropriate but because of health importance and logistic costs of supplementation, there is much higher expectation. Mothers’ education and reducing their concerns about transient supplementation side effects, more availability of supplementary products and supplying low side- effect products are the main issues for increasing the effectiveness of this preventive approach for ID and IDA.