Assessment of Iron supplementation program in 6-24 months old children of Yasuj 2006

• Main Authors: E Naimi, JM Malekzadeh, M Rezaei, N Khalesi, AM Mousavi, A Poormahmodi
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Iran University of Medical Sciences 2006-01-01
• Series: مدیریت سلامت
• Subjects: Supplementary iron; Knowledge; Attitude; Practice; Children
• Online Access: http://jha.iums.ac.ir/article-1-346-en.html

Introduction: Iron drops administration has been used for preventing Iron deficiency anemia for children. The present study was carried out to assessment using iron drops in 6-24 months age children in Yasuj county Methods: In a descriptive study by a stratified random sampling method, 300 mothers of 6-24 months old children were selected. A validated questionnaire, (Krunbach Alpha= 0.75 ) , which its reliability was confirmed by nutritionist, was used to data collecting. Findings are reported using SPSS version 13 , in analysis of variances, chi square test, and descriptive statistics. Results: More than a half (57.6%) of children were consumed iron drops regularly, but 34.9% irregular and 7.5% did not consume it at all. In 38.6% of cases mothers had good knowledge, 47.3% had moderately good knowledge, but the remainder had poor knowledge on using and complications of iron drop in children. The practices of mothers in feeding iron drops to their children were satisfying in 58.3%, moderately satisfying in 35.3% and unsatisfying in 5.9% of cases. There was no significant relationship between age, literacy, job and mothers attitude with iron drops consumption, although the knowledge of mothers were significantly effective in iron consumption ( P<0.05). Conclusion: Irregular consumption and even not consuming iron drops in children, and also poor attitudes of mothers on iron drops, beside the low tendency of children to ingest iron drop are alarming problems with iron drops usage for preventing iron deficiency anemia in children.