Common Clinical Conditions and Evidence-Based Care Guidelines

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. IFA supplementation under programmes like Anaemia Mukt Bharat is a 'precision' or targeted intervention, designed for specific at-risk groups (pregnant women, adolescent girls, young children), whereas staple-food fortification — adding iron or other micronutrients to widely consumed foods like rice or wheat — reaches the entire population indiscriminately. This distinction is foundational to public health nutrition policy design. Statement 2 is incorrect. Contrary to the common assumption that anaemia in India is predominantly due to iron deficiency, national Indian surveys have shown that iron deficiency is NOT the major cause of anaemia in the country. In fact, approximately one-third of anaemia cases show no identifiable micronutrient deficiency or obvious cause at all. The conflation of anaemia with iron deficiency anaemia is a key methodological error in India's anaemia control strategy. Statement 3 is correct. Population-wide fortification of staple foods with iron is a broad strategy that, while potentially effective in controlled clinical-trial settings, carries a risk of adverse effects for people who do not have iron deficiency — such as those whose anaemia arises from infections, haemoglobin disorders (e.g., thalassaemia), or non-nutritional causes. Administering excess iron to such individuals serves no therapeutic purpose and may be harmful, which is a principled public-health objection to universal fortification strategies.