Evaluation of the Iron Aid Program Process in Iranian girls' high school: A national study

Abstract

Background: One of the most important health and social problems in adolescent girls is iron deficiency anemia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Iron Aid National Program for high school girls. Methods:This cross-sectional study was performed on cluster random sampling from northern, southern, eastern, western and central regions of Iran with a sample size of 399 high school girl students. A valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software. Results:The most important reasons for not taking iron supplements from the students' viewpoints were the bad taste of iron supplements, nausea after consumption, non-prescription of the iron supplement by a physician. Most students believed that inviting health professionals and film/video screenings had the most impact on encouraging them to intake iron supplements. About 45 % of students reported that they had no training program on iron supplementation, and only 28 % of students received educational content. Also, 71 % of students said there were not enough glasses for the consumption of supplement iron. There was a significant relationship (p <0.05) between the person distributing the supplements in the schools, the availability of adequate drinking water, the time allocated to the implementation of the program, and the person teaching the program with the number of supplements consumed by the students (p <0.05). Conclusion:Based on the results of this study, attention was paid to different aspects of the Iron Aid National Program such as providing quality supplements, providing appropriate environmental conditions, designing training programs, public information and providing appropriate human resources for successful implementation of Iron Aid National Program are essential.