[Effects of the iron fortified soy sauce on improving students' anemia in boarding schools]

To evaluate the effect of iron fortified soy sauce on improving the anemia of boarding school students.

A total of 3029 students of the boarding schools in the 27 provinces in China including 1576 boys and 1453 girls were treat with the iron-fortified soy sauce for 12 months. The concentration of hemoglobin was detected before and after intervention. The statistical analysis was conducted to analyze the anemia rate and the hemoglobin concentration in boarding school students.

After the intervention, the average hemoglobin of students were increased from 142.1 g/L to 146.5 g/L compared to the baseline. The boys average haemoglobin concentration increased 6.7 g/L, girls average haemoglobin concentration increased 1.9 g/L. They were significantly higher than those of the baseline (P < 0.001 ). The total anemia prevalence were significantly difference than the baseline (P < 0.001). Anemia among both boys and girls fell to 1.1% and 4.7% respectively.

Iron-fortified soy sauce could be effective for the improvement the hemoglobin level of boarding school students, reduce anemia prevalence of students significantly.