Paper of the month: Anaemia policies in sub-Saharan Africa

This study evaluated the quality of these policies and the extent to which they were based on evidence relevant to the African context. Recommendations are made for improving the policy-making process. What have we done? A comprehensive and unrestricted database and website search for guidelines (as defined by WHO). We identified policies which targeted anaemia diagnosis, treatment and prevention in children and non-pregnant adolescents (18 years old) in Africa. Policy quality was assessed using   ‘The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation instrument (AGREE II)’ without any adaptation. A search for high-quality evidence in the Cochrane Library was performed to assess the evidence base for policies. What did we find? A total of 1247 documents were identified and screened and 46 were selected for analysis. There was policy consensus on usefulness of iron supplements, the need to treat co-morbidities and the use of blood transfusions for severe anaemia. Information about diagnosis was scarce, and messages regarding the control of anaemia were mixed. Few of the policies were tailored for the African context, and they were located on several websites hosted by different health programmes. There were examples of ambiguities within individual policies and inconsistencies between policies on key issues. For example, the definitions for categories of anaemia severity were inconsistent, specific age groups were often not identified, and when target age groups were s...
Source: The Nutrition Society - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: news