Table 2.

Eligibility criteria according to the PICOS framework

Attribute	Inclusion Criteria	Exclusion Criteria
Population	All studies included women of reproductive age from 15 to 49 years of age Studies involving pregnant or non-pregnant women and married or non-married women of reproductive age from 15 to 49 years of age	Studies involving children or elderly under the age of 15 or over the age of 49 years Studies focused on men of any age
Intervention	All interventional (experimental) studies have measured the effect of iron therapy on the reduction of anemia	Studies have measured the impact of any other intervention (other than iron) on anemia
Comparison	The comparison group is the women who are given interventions other than iron or assigned to a placebo	Not applicable
Outcome	Anemia is measured objectively and defined as Hb < 12.0 g/dl or Hct < 36% among non-pregnant women, and Hb < 11.0 g/dl or Hct < 33.0% among pregnant women	Studies that have measured outcomes other than anemia such as nutritional deficiencies, food insecurity, etc. as a proxy indicator of anemia
Study Designs	Intervention Studies include both randomized and non-randomized controlled trials	Non-experiment observational quantitative studies (cross-sectional, case–control, cohort), pre-and post-test designs, commentaries, editorials, symposium proceedings, systematic reviews, secondary articles, and qualitative studies
Language	Studies available in the English Language	Studies that are not available in English translation
Period	Studies were published between January 2000 to December 2020 to capture a wide range of recently published literature	Studies published before January 2000
Type of journal	Studies published in peer-reviewed local and international journals	Studies published in non-peer-reviewed journals