Factors influencing adherence to iron drop supplementation in infants aged 6 to 24 months: a systematic review of observational studies
ISSN: 0034-6659
Article publication date: 16 April 2024
Issue publication date: 13 May 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional anemia in the world and a pervasive health problem, especially in developing countries. Children under two years of age are more prone to be affected by IDA. The best strategy to prevent and treat IDA is to use iron supplements. This study aims to examine the factors associated with noncompliance (such as non-utilization or inconsistent usage) of iron drop supplementation among infants between 6 and 24 months old.
Design/methodology/approach
Online databases (PubMed, Scopus and SID) were searched to retrieve relevant articles published from inception up to July 2023. Among the 2,177 articles detected, after removing duplicate and irrelevant titles, 21 cross-sectional studies that met the authors’ inclusion criteria were included. Screening for articles and data extraction were conducted separately by two researchers.
Findings
The findings suggest that some factors related to mothers, such as education, knowledge, attitude and performance; some factors associated with child such as child’s gastrointestinal and dental complications; taste and smell of iron drops; and birth order and gender are the main determinants of adherence to iron supplementation.
Originality/value
It can be proposed that the most significant factors affecting the feeding of iron drops to children under the age of two include: the level of mother’s awareness, socio-economic status of the household and the occurrence of digestive complications following the supplementation. Given these observations, adopting proper policies toward improving the nutritional awareness of mothers and producing iron supplements with minimal side effects seems crucial.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study is related to the project No. 2406 From Student Research Committee, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran. We also appreciate the “Student Research and Technology Committee” and “Research and Technology Chancellor” in Bushehr University of Medical Sciences for their financial support of this study.
Declarations:
Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable.
Consent for publication: Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials: Not applicable.
Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Funding: The authors appreciate the “Student Research and Technology Committee” and “Research and Technology Chancellor” at Bushehr University of Medical Sciences for their financial support of this study.
Authors’ contributions: Maryam Hasanzadeh, Conceptualization, Writing – Manuscript. Fereshteh Kalantari, Conceptualization, Writing – Manuscript. Hadi Emamat, Writing – Draft, Writing – Review and Editing. H Ghalandari, Writing – Review and Editing. Hadith Tangestani, Conceptualization, Writing, Supervision. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Citation
Hasanzadeh, M., Kalantari, F., Emamat, H., Ghalandari, H. and Tangestani, H. (2024), "Factors influencing adherence to iron drop supplementation in infants aged 6 to 24 months: a systematic review of observational studies", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 54 No. 4, pp. 718-731. https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-10-2023-0236
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited