Daily versus intermittent iron supplementation in pregnancy: A randomized trial

Abstract

WHO recommends daily oral iron supplementation for pregnant women to prevent maternal iron-deficiency anaemia however patients’ adherence to daily oral iron regimens is poor. We compared the effect of daily and intermittent oral iron supplementation on hematologic and iron indices in pregnancy and fetal outcome. This was a prospective randomized clinical trial in which 300 healthy pregnant women without anemia, in their 20th week of pregnancy were randomly allocated to receive either 600mg-ferrous sulfate tablet daily or 600mg-ferrous sulfate tablet twice weekly. Hemoglobin and serum iron indices were measured before and after the supplementation and compared. There were no significant differences between the pre- and post-intervention hemoglobin levels when the two groups were compared. Birth weights and Apgar scores of babies born to mothers in both study arms were comparable. Therefore, twice weekly iron supplementation is equally effective as daily iron supplementation for healthy pregnant women with similar fetal outcomes.