1. Prevention and Treatment of Anemia in Infants through Supplementation, Assessing the Effectiveness of Using Iron Once or Twice Weekly.
- Author
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Aragão Matos, Tárcio, Nogueira Arcanjo, Francisco Plácido, Santos, Paulo Roberto, Costa Arcanjo, Cecília, Matos, Tárcio Aragão, Arcanjo, Francisco Plácido Nogueira, and Arcanjo, Cecília Costa
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IRON deficiency diseases in infants , *IRON deficiency anemia treatment , *DIETARY supplements , *INFANT health , *INFANT nutrition , *DISEASE prevalence , *IRON deficiency anemia prevention , *CLUSTER analysis (Statistics) , *COMPARATIVE studies , *DRUG administration , *DOSE-effect relationship in pharmacology , *FERRITIN , *HEMOGLOBINS , *IRON compounds , *IRON deficiency anemia , *RESEARCH methodology , *MEDICAL cooperation , *RESEARCH , *TIME , *SOCIOECONOMIC factors , *EVALUATION research , *RANDOMIZED controlled trials , *TREATMENT effectiveness - Abstract
Background: The objective of this study was to compare the effect of once weekly iron supplementation (IS) versus twice weekly, on hemoglobin (Hb) levels and anemia prevalence.Methods: In this cluster-randomized clinical trial study, we evaluated infants aged 6-18 months. Length of intervention: 16 weeks. Infants were cluster randomized to either 25 mg elemental iron once weekly (Group-A) or twice weekly (Group-B). Primary outcome variables were change in Hb concentration and anemia prevalence. Two biochemical evaluations were performed to determine Hb concentrations, before and after intervention.Results: For Group-A, at baseline, mean Hb concentration was 10.8 ± 1.18 g/dl and after intervention 11.2 ± 1.07 g/dl,p = 0.12; anemia prevalence was 52.5% at baseline and 37.5% after intervention,p = 0.18; Group-B, mean baseline Hb was 10.7 ± 1.04 g/dl, and 11.3 ± 0.91 g/dl after intervention,p = 0.002; anemia prevalence reduced from 57.9 to 36.8%.Conclusions: Both once and twice weekly IS increased mean Hb concentration; however, twice weekly supplementation provided more significant results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2016
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