Is weekly iron and folic acid supplementation as effective as daily supplementation for decreasing incidence of anemia in adolescent girls?

T HIS CLINICAL TRIAL 1 compared the effectivenessofweeklyvsdaily administrationof iron plus folic acid for the treatment of anemia in adolescent Nepalese girls, a population with an extremely high prevalence of anemia. The study was conducted in a single governmentrun school in Dharan, an urban foothill town in Nepal. Girls from the 8th to 12th grades aged 11 to 18 years were enrolled. Baseline characteristics measured included sociodemographic variables, diet (vegetarian vs nonvegetarian), history of parasites, menarcheal status, anthropometrics, and presence of specific physical abnormalities. The baseline prevalence of anemia in this population was 69%. Subjects were randomized to 1 of 3 groups: group A (n=70) received supplementation with tablets containing 350 mg of ferrous sulfate and 1.5 mg of folic acid once a day for 90 to 100 days; group B (n=67) received the same combination on a fixed day once a week for 14 weeks, supervised by 1 of the investigators; and group C (n=72) received no treatment during the study period. Of the 225