EVALUATION OF WEEKLY IRON AND FOLIC ACID SUPPLEMENTATION PROGRAM FOR ADOLESCENTS IN RURAL KANCHIPURAM, INDIA
Journal Title: National Journal of Research in Community Medicine - Year 2018, Vol 7, Issue 2
Abstract
Background: Adolescent anaemia is a long standing public health problem in India. The NFHS-3 data suggests that the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent Indian girls (15–19 years) is 56%. The Government of India launched weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) Programme on 2013 to cope up with the problem of iron deficiency anaemia among adolescent boys and girls. Objective: The present study was done to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding anaemia and weekly iron and folic acid supplementation program by government of India for adolescents in rural Kanchipuram Material and Methods: A Cross sectional study was carried out among all the teachers and adolescents studying at schools located in the Field practice area of Meenakshi Medical College and Research Institute, Kanchipuram using a structured questionnaire. Data was entered and analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) (version 21.0) software package. Results: Among 353 respondents, 331 were students and 22 were teachers. Out of 331 students, 53.8% were males and 46.2% were females. Majority of the students (83.7%) consumed Iron and Folic acid (IFA) tablets regularly. 79.2% of the respondents have not experienced any side effects. Although 76.2 % of the students were aware about anemia and 55.1 % stated that the source of information is from school, 70.5 % students were not aware of the symptoms of anemia. More than half the respondents were able to identify correctly the composition of the Iron and folic acid tablets. The teachers reported that the supply, stock and storage of IFA tablets was regular and adequate.Conclusions: Giving IFA supplementation alone is not sufficient to correct anemia, this has to be combined with improving the the awareness about anemia and how to prevent it.
Authors and Affiliations
Midhun Kumar GH, Satyajit Patnaik, Kokila Selvaraj, Jayakumar Anbalagan
Keywords
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- EP ID EP515950
- DOI 10.26727/NJRCM.2018.7.2.101-103
- Views 100
- Downloads 0
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