The association between social support with compliance of IFA supplement intake among adolescent girls in Sidoarjo, Indonesia

Abstract

Background: Anemia is a severe nutritional issue affecting people worldwide, including in Indonesia. One of the government's initiatives to alleviate anemia afflicting adolescent Indonesian girls is iron and folic acid supplementation (IFAS). However, this program has shown to be ineffective, which may be due to poor compliance of IFAS. Aim: This study aimed to identify the association of social support (sources of information and reminders) with compliance of IFA supplement intake among adolescent girls in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Methods: This research was an observational analytic study with the cross-sectional method in three schools in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. A total of 202 high school adolescent girls were randomly selected. Bivariate statistics with the Spearman rank test determined associations and the strength of associations at a significant threshold of p < 0.05. Results: IFA compliance was low (11.4%). However, there was a significant association between the number of sources of information ( r = 0.175, p = 0.013) and the number of reminders ( r = 0.158; p = 0.025) with compliance of high school adolescent girls to consume IFA supplements regularly in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Meanwhile, age did not significantly affect compliance of regular IFA supplement consumption. Conclusions: The compliance level was positively related to the number of sources of information and the number of reminders for taking IFA supplements among high school adolescent girls. Involvement from social environments such as teachers, parents, and health workers as a source of information and reminders can help improve high school adolescent girls’ compliance.