Prevention of iron deficiency by milk fortification. III. Effectiveness under the usual operational conditions of a nation-wide food program
1988
Stekel, A. | Pizarro, F. | Olivares, M. | Chadud, P. | Llaguno, S. | Cayazzo, M. | Hertrampf, E. | Walter, T.
A full fat acidified milk fortified with 15 mg of elemental iron as FeSO4 and 100 mg of ascorbic acid per 100 g powder, previously shown to be effective in preventing iron deficiency in a highly controlled field trial, was tested under the normal operational conditions in a regional fortification program. After weaning and until 15 mo of age, 654 infants received the fortified milk and 585 received the unfortified milk, at 7 outpatient clinics of the health service. Acceptability of fortified milk was very good. In 200 randomly selected infants from each cohort iron status was measured. At ages 9 and 15 mo significant differences were found in all measures of iron nutriture in favour of the fortified group (p less than 0.001). At age 15 mo, anemia (Hb less than 110 g/L) was present in 29.9% of unfortified infants compared to 5.5% in those fortified. Serum ferritin less than 10 microgram/L was present in 41.2% of the nonfortified infants vs 3.5% for the fortified group. Under the normal operational conditions of the deployment of a national supplementary food program the fortified milk was equally effective in preventing iron deficiency.
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