Introduction:

Anemia is a worldwide prevalence disease characterized by inefficiency of erythrocytes to distribute oxygen, whose main etiology is iron deficiency. There are worldwide known methods to combat it; however, Latin America has little evidence on the impact of these methods in reducing the prevalence of anemia.

Objective:

The present study reviewed health sector and multisectoral interventions for the reduction of anemia in children aged 6 months to 5 years in Latin America.

Materials and methods:

An exhaustive review of the literature was carried out with the keywords: child, anemia, Latin America, prevention and control in the Embase, Pubmed, La Biblioteca Virtual en Salud (BVS) and Google scholar databases, the articles were filtered in 4 stages (identification, selection, eligibility and inclusion) individually by the authors, leaving 9 eligible randomized clinical trials.

Results:

From the trials, interventions such as micronutrient powder (MNP), Nutrisano food supplement, Nutrisano milk drink, syrups, iron pots and plant-fortified cookies were found. MNP, syrups and cookies with cowpea were found to reduce anemia significantly; however, for factors such as adherence and efficiency MNP and cookies are the most recommended. The use of Nutrisano milk drink + MNP and the use of iron pots did not significantly reduce anemia.

Conclusions:

In Latin America, MNP according to Neufeld are recommended to reduce anemia, and cookies fortified with cowpea according to Landim to increase hemoglobin.