The IGAD Centre of Excellence in Nutrition (ICEN), in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), is pleased to highlight new research findings with important implications for maternal nutrition policy and programming.
The study provides new evidence from rural Kenya showing that improving tolerance to iron and folic acid supplementation (IFAS), rather than focusing solely on compliance is critical for improving maternal and fetal health. Women who received counselling on IFAS side effects were significantly more likely to continue supplementation, while early and frequent antenatal care (ANC) visits further improved tolerance. The findings underscore the importance of integrating targeted side-effect counselling and tolerance indicators into maternal nutrition programmes to strengthen the effectiveness of IFAS and, where appropriate, future multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) programmes.
The evidence has important policy and programme implications, including strengthening ANC counselling protocols, incorporating tolerance measures into routine monitoring systems, and prioritizing early ANC attendance to improve maternal and fetal nutrition outcomes.
ICEN Nutrition Technical Brief is herein accompanied.
Full journal research article available at:
