The Influence of Antenatal Oral Iron and Folic Acid Side Effects on Supplementation Duration in Low-Resource Rural Kenya: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND

Undesirable effects of a daily regimen of iron and folic acid ingested jointly (iron-folate) are potential disincentives to optimal antenatal supplementation. We intended to profile antenatal iron-folate side effects and elucidate their influence on supplementation duration in low-resource rural Kenya.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study of randomly selected postnatal mothers of under-five-year-old children. Using a modified WHO Safe Motherhood Assessment standard questionnaire, they recalled the total number of days of antenatal iron-folate intake and the attendant supplement-attributed undesirable experiences. The analyses considered only participants who ingested the supplements in their immediate last pregnancies ( = 277).

RESULTS

About half of the study participants reported at least a side effect and a mean of 2.4 (SD 1.5) effects per person in the entire pregnancy period. Most common reported effects were chest pains (31.8%), constipation (28.5%), severe stomach pains (11.6%), and diarrhoea (11.6%). Mothers who reported at least a side effect ingested the supplements for ten days less compared to those who did not experience any effect ( = 0.03); and a greater proportion of the former were primigravida ( = 0.02) and used combined form of iron and folic acid ( = 0.003). In a multivariate analysis, significant correlations with supplementation compliance (ingestion for 90+ days) were found only for nausea and severe stomach pain experiences ( = -0.1, = 0.04; = 0.2, = 0.01, resp.).

CONCLUSIONS

The commonness of undesirable experiences attributed to daily ingestion of 60 mg iron and 0.4 mg folic acid and their deterrence to longer supplementation durations suggest the need for considering a weekly intermittent regimen for some antenatal women in such set-ups. Our study demonstrated that potentially, more counselling on nausea as a side effect might be critical in advancing iron-folate supplementation compliance.