Physical work capacity of young underprivileged school girls impact of daily vs intermittent iron folic acid supplementation: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES To assess impact of daily and intermittent iron-folate (IFA) supplementation on physical work capacity of underprivileged schoolgirls in Vadodara. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTING Municipal Primary schools. PARTICIPANTS Schoolgirls (n=163) in the age group of 9-13 years. INTERVENTION Three randomly selected schools were given IFA tablets (100 mg elemental iron + 0.5 mg folic acid) either once weekly or twice weekly or daily for one year. The fourth was the control school. OUTCOME MEASURES Hemoglobin, modified Harvards Step test for physical work capacity. RESULTS All three IFA supplemented groups showed significant improvement in number of steps climbed and recovery time compared to controls; with impact being relatively better in girls with higher Hb gain (> 1 g/dL) vs. lower Hb gain. Similarly, higher the frequency of dosing better was the impact- it being the best in daily IFA group. Twice weekly IFA was as good as daily IFA under conditions of good compliance. CONCLUSION Twice weekly IFA supplementation is comparable to daily IFA in terms of beneficial effects on physical work capacity in young girls.