Dietary education and iron deficiency anaemia in the inner city

Objectives-To assess if a dietary health education programme could be used within existing health resources to reduce the incidence of iron deficiency anaemia in an inner city population. Design-Prospective cohort study. Setting-Inner city areas of west and south Birmingham. Subjects-A total of 1000 children recorded on the child health computer register. Intervention-Children were recruited at birth and randomised into control and intervention groups. Families in the intervention group received specific health education information at key ages by face to face contact using a range of materials. The control group received standard health education as delivered by the health visitors at the time. Main outcome measures-Haemoglobin estimation and iron content of the diet at 18 months of age. Results-A total of 455 children completed the study. Sixty nine (27%) of the control group and 55 (28%) of the intervention group were anaemic as defined by haemoglobin less than 110 gn. There was no difference in the iron content of the diets offered to the two groups of children. Conclusion-In this deprived population we have shown no reduction in anaemia using a targeted nutritional programme and have highlighted the difficulties in conducting health education programmes within the scope of current health resources.