Effectiveness of an educational program on mothers’ knowledge about iron deficiency anemia

Introduction: Iron deficiency anemia(IDA) is the most common type of malnutrition in the world andmore than 30 percent of Iranian women suffering from that. Increasing of knowledge with education ofpopulation can be an effective program to preventing this problem. The aim of this study was to determinethe effectiveness of education on mother's knowledge about preventive methods of iron deficiency anemia.Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study as before and after study, 336 students’mothers from 8 schools of Tehran participated in 2011 year. The knowledge about IDA before and aftereducation was gathered by a researcher made questionnaire. The educational contents were presented as alecture in 45 minutes.Results: The knowledge score of participants increased after education in all of understudy subjects andthe significant difference was seen between the mean knowledge score before and after study (p<0.0001).There was significant and positive correlation between mothers’ educational level and the program effect(r=0.169, P<0.002) and negative correlation between number of children with program effect (r= -0.140,P<0.007). There weren’t any significant association between educational program effectiveness withmother’s age and her occupation, father’s age and his occupation and children educational level.Conclusion: This study indicated that educational program even a short-term training is an effectiveknowledge strategy to promoting mothers’ knowledge about IDA.