THE EFFECTS OF INTERMITTENT AND DAILY INTAKE OF COMPLEMENTARY IRON ON CLINICAL INDICES OF IRON AND ZINC IN PREGNANT WOMEN.

The aim of the current study is to compare the effects of intermittent and daily intake of complementary iron on clinical indices of iron and zinc in the sera of pregnant women.

Materials & Methods: This study was done on 76 volunteer pregnant women who referred to some Health and Remedy Centers of Urmia using clinical trial and double blind methods. The studied group consisted of healthy pregnant women with the age range of 18 to 26 years old, 1st to 3rd time of pregnancy, 13 to 16 weeks of pregnancy and hemoglobin concentration equal or more than 11g/dl. 40 of studied group women took daily complementary iron (as 150 mg ferrous sulfate tablets) and 36 of them took these tablets periodically every other day. They took the tablets in a 60 day period of the study. The blood samples of the studied individuals were taken as 10 ml vein blood in the first and the last day of the study. We evaluated hemoglobin factors, hematocrit, RBC, MCH, MCHC, TIBC, transferrin saturation percent, serum ferritin, and serum zinc in the studied group. We evaluated diet patterns of the group by studying 24 hours reference of 3 days food intake as well as the side effects of consumption of iron complementary drugs on the studied pregnant women.

Results: Referring to the results of the current study, there were no meaningful differences in the studied factors between the groups, although TIBC, transferring saturation percent, and serum iron levels were lower in the group using complementary iron tablets periodically every other day than the group using every day. On the other hand, the serum level of zinc was significantly lower in the group using complementary iron periodically every other day than the group using every day (P < 0.03).

Conclusion: The results of this study show that we may be able to substitute every day administration of complementary iron to pregnant women by periodically every other day administration of it. So it could be considered as an appropriate alternative method for consumption of complementary iron tablets in preventing anemia in pregnant women that has the least effect in increasing absorption of other food stuffs including zinc