Utilization and compliance of weekly iron and folic acid supplementation programme among school dropout adolescent girls in rural areas of Odisha, India

Abstract

Background: Iron deficiency anemia is a major public health problem occurring mostly in adolescent girls due to its intergenerational impact. Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation programme was implemented under Ministry of Women and Child Development to reach all adolescents. Objective: To find the anemic status of out-of-school adolescent girls, their utilization and compliance of Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation programme. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among ninety-six school dropout adolescent girls in five villages in Khordha district. A snow-ball sampling was used to screen the school dropout adolescent girls and a consecutive sampling technique was used to recruit subjects in the study. Anemic status was checked with True Hb Hemometer. A self- constructed structured questionnaire was used to assess the utilization status, compliance and non-compliance to WIFS programme. Results: Majority of the subjects were found suffering from mild to moderate anemia. Nearly half of the subjects were utilizing the WIFS programme but only 47% were compliant. Unavailability of Iron tablets was observed to be major cause of non-compliance. It was also found that adolescents who were compliance to IFA tablets were having better anemia status (p