Once weekly is superior to daily iron supplementation on height gain but not on hematological improvement among schoolchildren in Thailand.

Study answer

What this study found

Once-weekly iron was superior to daily iron for height gain over 16 weeks, while hematologic improvement was broadly similar between regimens. Hemoglobin increased in both groups, from 121.3 to 127.8 g/L with daily iron and from 121.2 to 126.9 g/L with weekly iron; both active regimens improved hemoglobin versus placebo, with P < 0.001 for daily and P = 0.026 for weekly. Daily iron produced a larger serum ferritin increase than weekly iron (39.8 vs 13.4, P < 0.001), but this did not translate into better hemoglobin or anemia outcomes. Height gain was greater with weekly than daily iron (2.6…

Study & population

Randomized supplementation study in primary schoolchildren from two public schools in rural Songkhla Province, southern Thailand.

Intervention

Oral ferrous sulfate 300 mg tablets providing 60 mg elemental iron were given for 16 weeks.

Key limitation

The trial lasted only 16 weeks, so longer-term effects on growth and iron status are unknown.

View full study detailsView sourceOpen PDF

Original abstract