Efficiency of the iron supplementation programme for pregnant women in Jeneponto, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

An official iron supplementation programme for pregnant women in Jeneponto, South Sulawesi, Indonesia was assessed for efficiency. Data were collected in a cross-sectional study of 107 women in the second or third trimester of pregnancy from 18 villages. 47.7% of the women were anaemic, although 63.6% stated they had received prenatal care. Of the 68 women who had received prenatal care. 49 had obtained iron tablets. However, 32.7% of the 49 women who received iron admitted that they had not taken all of the tablets. Mean Hb levels of women in the second trimester who had received tablets was 9 g/l higher (P=0.049) than that of women who had not received tablets. To improve the efficiency of the iron supplementation programme there must be an improvement in the coverage of pre-natal care, in the completeness of iron tablet distribution, and in efforts to assure that the pregnant women actually take the tablets given to them.