The Effect of Anemia Free Club Interventions to Improve Knowledge and Attitude of Nutritional Iron Deficiency Anemia Prevention among Adolescent Schoolgirls in Bandar Lampung City, Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Anemia in adolescent is a global public health problem affecting both developing and developed countries. Adolescents are at high risk of anemia. School-based interventions are important to decrease the anemia. AIM: This study was performed to determine the effect of anemia free club interventions to improve knowledge and attitude of nutritional iron deficiency anemia prevention among adolescent schoolgirls in Bandar Lampung City, Indonesia. METHODS: The authors conducted a quasi-experimental. The study sample consists of 55 intervention groups and 47 control groups of senior high schoolgirls in Bandar Lampung City. The intervention group attended nutrition education–based, namely, anemia free club sessions for 12 weeks, while the control group did not. The sampling technique is proportional random sampling. Before and after the intervention program, knowledge and attitude questionnaire were filled out for both the groups. A paired sample t-test was used for data analysis. p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant effect. Finally, data were collected and analyzed by the SPSS program. RESULTS: This study known before the intervention, there were no significant differences regarding the knowledge and attitude in two groups (p > 0.05). After the intervention, there were significant differences in the levels of knowledge and attitude between intervention and control groups (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: This analysis confirmed an effect of anemia free club interventions to improve knowledge and attitude of nutritional iron deficiency anemia prevention among adolescent schoolgirls