Evaluation of national nutritional anemia prophylaxis programme.

An evaluation of the National Nutritional Anemia Prophylaxis Program was carried out in Andhra Pradesh. About 8,000 respondents from about 5,754 households were interviewed and 487 pregnant women were covered for haemoglobin estimation in six selected districts. Nearly 19 per cent of the pregnant women had received folifer tablets, while about 1 per cent of child beneficiaries were receiving the tablets. The acceptance of the programme by the community appeared to be satisfactory. The reasons for poor coverage were reported to be inadequate and irregular supplies. Results indicated that the health functionaries were not properly oriented towards the programme, as many of them were not aware of all the beneficiaries under the programme. Chemical analysis of the tablets indicated that about 30 per cent of the tablet samples had iron content less than the expected levels, and none of them had expected levels of folic acid content.