Mobile Health Application Tracking of Iron Adherence and Hemoglobin Outcomes in Mildly Anemic Adolescent Girls
Abstract
Anemia among adolescent girls remains a significant public health challenge in Indonesia, with prevalence increasing from 37.1% in 2013 to 48.9% in 2018. Despite the implementation of a national iron supplementation program, adherence rates remain critically low, ranging from 1% to 10%. This study investigated the correlation between adherence to iron supplementation and hemoglobin levels in adolescent girls with mild anemia. A total of 76 female students aged 16–18 years, presenting with baseline hemoglobin levels of 11.0–11.9 g/dL, were enrolled from four schools in Jember Regency, East Java. Participants were equally divided into an intervention group receiving the MonEv application and a control group, with a follow-up period of four months. The results demonstrated progressive improvements in the intervention group: the proportion of participants with good knowledge increased from 1.3% to 30.3%, those exhibiting positive attitudes rose from 3.9% to 31.6%, and normal hemoglobin levels were achieved by 42.1% of participants by the fourth month. A statistically significant correlation between adherence to iron supplementation and hemoglobin normalization was observed at four months (p = 0.003), indicating that sustained digital monitoring meaningfully supports biological recovery. These findings demonstrate the potential of mobile health (mHealth) technology as a scalable, evidence-based strategy for adolescent anemia prevention in low-resource settings.
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