Impact of micronutrient powder on anemia in children aged 10-35 months in Apurimac, Peru

Abstract

Objective. To assess the impact of micronutrient powder supplementation (MNP) in reducing anemia in children aged 10 to 35 months in Apurimac, Peru. A secondary analysis of the database of the Evaluation of supplementation with MNP in the Apurímac region, conducted by the National Food and Nutrition Center (CENAN, in Spanish) between 2009 and 2010, was conducted. The intervention group was defined as children who consumed 60 or more packets of MNP; to generate the controls (children who did not consume MNP), we applied a propensity score matching (PSM); and, to estimate the impact of the MNP, we compared the prevalence of anemia in each study group, weighted by the probability of participation, applying three matching algorithms: nearest neighbor, kernel and local linear regression. All calculations were performed in the Stata 14 SE statistical program. The prevalence of anemia was significantly lower by up to 11 percentage points in the intervention group compared to controls (p=0.001), and mean hemoglobin increased by 0.3 g/dL in the same group (p<0.001). MNP supplementation showed impact in reducing anemia and increasing hemoglobin level in children who consumed 60 or more packets of MNP over a six-month period. Efforts to reduce anemia by using MNP to prevent this nutritional deficiency should continue.