Overview

This guideline provides global, evidence-informed recommendations on daily iron supplementation in infants and children, as a public-health intervention for the prevention of anaemia and iron deficiency. It includes recommendations for iron supplementation in countries where malaria is prevalent.

The guideline aims to help Member States and their partners in their efforts to make informed decisions on the appropriate nutrition actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. It will also support Member States in their efforts to achieve the global targets set in the Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, as endorsed by the Sixty-fifth World Health Assembly in 2012, in resolution WHA65.6, and the Global strategy For women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health (2016–2030).

The recommendations in this guideline are intended for a wide audience, including policy-makers, their expert advisers, and technical and programme staff at organizations involved in the design, implementation and scaling-up of programmes for anaemia prevention and control, and in nutrition actions for public health. This document presents the key recommendations and a summary of the supporting evidence.

Contents

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• SCOPE AND PURPOSE
• BACKGROUND
  • Anaemia in infants and children
  • Iron supplementation in malaria-endemic areas
• OBJECTIVES
• SUMMARY OF AVAILABLE EVIDENCE
  • Daily iron supplementation in infants and children aged 6–23 months
  • Daily iron supplementation in children aged 24–59 months
  • Daily iron supplementation in children aged 60 months and older
  • Daily iron supplementation in infants and children in malaria-endemic areas
• REMARKS
• RESEARCH PRIORITIES
• DISSEMINATION, IMPLEMENTATION AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
  • Dissemination
  • Implementation
  • Regulatory considerations
  • Ethical considerations
  • Monitoring and evaluation of guideline implementation
• GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
  • Advisory groups
  • Scope of the guideline, evidence appraisal and decision-making
• MANAGEMENT OF COMPETING INTERESTS
• PLANS FOR UPDATING THE GUIDELINE
• REFERENCES
• ANNEX 1 GRADE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS TABLES
• ANNEX 2 SUMMARY OF THE CONSIDERATIONS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT GROUP FOR DETERMINING THE STRENGTH OF THE RECOMMENDATION FOR DAILY IRON SUPPLEMENTATION IN CHILDREN AGED 6–23 MONTHS
• ANNEX 3 SUMMARY OF THE CONSIDERATIONS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT GROUP FOR DETERMINING THE STRENGTH OF THE RECOMMENDATION FOR DAILY IRON SUPPLEMENTATION IN CHILDREN AGED 24–59 MONTHS
• ANNEX 4 SUMMARY OF THE CONSIDERATIONS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT GROUP FOR DETERMINING THE STRENGTH OF THE RECOMMENDATION FOR DAILY IRON SUPPLEMENTATION IN CHILDREN AGED 60 MONTHS AND OLDER
• ANNEX 5 SUMMARY OF THE CONSIDERATIONS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT GROUP FOR DETERMINING THE STRENGTH OF THE RECOMMENDATION FOR DAILY IRON SUPPLEMENTATION IN MALARIA– ENDEMIC AREAS
• ANNEX 6 WHO STEERING COMMITTEE FOR NUTRITION GUIDELINES DEVELOPMENT
• ANNEX 7 WHO GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT GROUP
• ANNEX 8 EXTERNAL RESOURCE EXPERTS
• ANNEX 9 WHO SECRETARIAT
• ANNEX 10 PEER-REVIEWERS
• ANNEX 11 QUESTIONS IN POPULATION, INTERVENTION, CONTROL, OUTCOMES (PICO) FORMAT

This publication is a World Health Organization (WHO) guideline. A WHO guideline is any document, whatever its title, containing WHO recommendations about health interventions, whether they be clinical, public health or policy interventions. A standard guideline is produced in response to a request for guidance in relation to a change in practice, or controversy in a single clinical or policy area, and is not expected to cover the full scope of the condition or public health problem. A recommendation provides information about what policy-makers, health-care providers or patients should do. It implies a choice between different interventions that have an impact on health and that have ramifications for the use of resources. All publications containing WHO recommendations are approved by the WHO Guidelines Review Committee.

Suggested citation:

Guideline: Daily iron supplementation in infants and children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016.

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