Multi-micronutrient-fortified biscuits decreased the prevalence of anaemia and improved iron status, whereas weekly iron supplementation only improved iron status in Vietnamese school children.

Study answer

What this study found

Daily multi-micronutrient-fortified biscuits produced the clearest benefit, markedly improving iron status and reducing anaemia; weekly iron tablets improved iron status but had a smaller effect on anaemia. In the fortified-biscuit arm, anaemia fell from 45.8% to 1.0%, compared with 10.4% in controls, and hemoglobin increased to 129 g/l, with higher ferritin and lower transferrin receptor than controls (P<0.001 and P=0.007, respectively). Weekly iron also increased ferritin and body iron, but endpoint hemoglobin remained intermediate and was not significantly different from the other groups…

Study & population

Randomized controlled trial in primary-school children aged 6 to 9 years in rural Quang Nam province, Vietnam.

Intervention

Daily multi-micronutrient-fortified biscuits (FB) provided five biscuits per day, about 30 g per serving, containing 8.8 mg iron as iron fumarate plus other micronutrients, and were eaten at school 5 days per week for 6 months.

Key limitation

Arm-specific baseline demographic data were not reported, and some counts were available only for evaluable or blood-sampled subsets rather than the full randomized arms.

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Original abstract