Women’s insights on anaemia and the impact of nutrition training: An intervention study among rural women in Dodoma, Tanzania

Abstract

An interventional pre-post study was conducted to evaluate rural women’s insights on anaemia and the effects of nutritional training on the knowledge and haemoglobin (Hb) levels among women of reproductive age (19–45 years) in Dodoma, Tanzania. The respondent was the mother/woman or any other person responsible for food preparation and serving in the household. Baseline and endline data on demographic and socioeconomic information, women’s insights on anaemia, knowledge gaps of mothers’/caregivers’ in nutrition, iron deficiency and iron-rich foods were collected using a face to face interviewer-administered questionnaire. Haemoglobin concentration of the women was measured at baseline and endline using a portable battery-operated electronic HemoCue Hemoglobinometer. Training was done once every month for three months consecutively. A total of 350 women were involved at baseline and 260 women at endline. Among all respondents, only 18% of women had baseline knowledge regarding the causes of anaemia which was increased significantly to 72% after the intervention. At baseline, 19% of women had haemoglobin levels of below 12.0 g/dl this number decreased to 13% during the endline survey. The results indicated a significant association between a woman having consumed green leafy vegetables in the previous 24 hours preceding the survey and haemoglobin levels during the endline period. The findings of this study indicate that the nutrition education given directly to rural women could have some impact in improving women’s knowledge and haemoglobin status.

Keywords

• anaemia
• nutrition education
• rural women
• iron deficiency