FACTORS INFLUENCING COMPLIANCE WITH IRON SUPPLEMENTATION AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN

Poor compliance with iron supplementation has been reported as one cause for the continuing increase in prevalence of iron deficiency anemia among pregnant women. This study was conducted to determine the influence of selected factors on the compliance of pregnant women with iron supplementation. A cohort of 105 pregnant women from the City of Muntinlupa were followed up for three months of iron supplementation. Compliance with the intervention was measured through self-reporting of the number of iron capsules missed to have taken and by actual pill counting. From these two compliance indicators, a compliance index was formulated to differentiate good compliers from not good compliers. Findings showedthat 54% (57) of the participants were considered good compliers. Of the 14 socio-demographic factors investigated, educational attainment (p=.003) and the number of instructions received by the pregnant women on ironsupplementation (p=.050) were found to be significantly associated with the participants’ compliance index.