Approaches to Address the Anemia Challenge

Abstract

Anemia is a multifactorial condition; approaches to address it must recognize that the causal factors represent an ecology consisting of internal (biology, genetics, and health) and external (social/behavioral/demographic and physical) environments. In this paper, we present an approach for selecting interventions, followed by a description of key issues related to the multiple available interventions for prevention and reduction of anemia. We address interventions for anemia using the following 2 main categories: 1) those that address nutrients alone, and, 2) those that address nonnutritional causes of anemia. The emphasis will be on interventions of public health relevance, but we also consider the clinical context. We also focus on interventions at different stages of the life course, with a particular focus on women of reproductive age and preschool-age children, and present evidence on various factors to consider when selecting an intervention-inflammation, genetic mutations, nutrient delivery, bioavailability, and safety. Each section on an intervention domain concludes with a brief discussion of key research areas.

Keywords: anemia; food-based; interventions; nonnutritional; nutrition-specific.