Effect of a dietary program on school boy's vitamin A and iron intake

Introduction: Nutrition is the most important aspect for healthy and disease in children andadolescents. This pre-experimental study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of developed dietaryintervention programmed package in vitamin A and iron received in school children.Materials and Methods: This study was performed on 120; 11-14 years old children along withtheir families were randomly recruited and divided in two experimental and control groups fromAjabshir Junior high Schools. Families' dietary history and dietary data from students by means ofthree consecutive 24-hour diet records and recalls before and after intervention were collected. Datacollection has done by nutritional table and quaderprounch. Factors such as age, education level, job,income, type of home matched. Dietary intervention programmed package contained on role ofvitamin A and iron received in growth and healthy, introducing sources of vitamin A and iron innutrition and take 7 nutritional plans based on socio-economical level for families (21 plans for 3levels). This plan flowed up for 30 days and the 2 questionnaires measured again in 2 groups.Results: The baseline data indicated that intake of most micronutrients were below theRecommended Dietary Allowance after the intervention period. Vitamin A and iron intakes of theexperimental subjects were significantly higher than those of the control group (P< 0.001).Conclusion: These results indicate that encouraging the consumption of rich but cheap and locallyavailable dietary sources of vitamin A and iron can prevent vitamin A and iron deficiencies in schoolchildren. Thus to prevent micronutrients deficiencies, were commend establishing dietary interventionprograms availability of foods and communities according to their cultural and socioeconomic status.