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Impact of CARE India's Integrated Nutrition and Health Program (INHP‐II) on Antenatal Iron Folic‐Acid Supplementation
Author(s) -
Aggarwal Anju,
Singh Veena,
Chaudhery Deepika,
Srivastava Vinod,
Li Yong,
Ahmad Saifuddin,
Caulfield Laura,
Dreyfuss Michele
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a680-a
Subject(s) - receipt , medicine , environmental health , folic acid , anemia , uttar pradesh , folic acid supplementation , consumption (sociology) , pediatrics , socioeconomics , social science , sociology , world wide web , computer science
Antenatal Iron‐Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation prevents iron deficiency anemia and its consequences, but results on program effectiveness has been lacking. CARE's INHP‐II was designed to improve the quality of government health care services. Here we assess the impact of antenatal IFA supplementation among mothers of children 0–23 months of age. Baseline and endline surveys were conducted in one intervention (I) and one comparison (C) district each of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Uttar Pradesh (UP) in early 2004 and 2006. There were ~2500 mothers in each of the districts in both AP and UP. Receipt of any IFA increased in both districts (AP‐I: 41 to 55%; UP‐I: 63 to 76%) compared to no change in comparison districts (75% and 55% respectively) (p<0.05). Among women who received any IFA, receipt of ≥90 IFA was unchanged at 26–32% in both AP districts, but increased in UP‐I (50 to 65%) relative to no change in UP‐C (53%). Consumption of ≥90 IFA was low at baseline (6–8%) and increased to 18% at endline in both AP districts. However, consumption doubled in UP‐I (15 to 36%) relative to UP‐C (13 to 19%) (p<0.05). Consumption of all IFA received increased by 33% in AP‐I and 20% in UP‐I relative to modest increases in AP‐C (22%) and UP‐C (10%) (p<0.05). Further efforts are needed to achieve higher levels of ≥90 IFA coverage and consumption. Funded by USAID.