Anemia has long been recognized as a serious public health problem in many developing countries. WHO reported at an INACG meeting and estimated that 2 billion people were anemic. Based on the public health viewpoint, most cases of anemia are nutritional anemia and defined in the year 1968 WHO technical report as a condition in which the hemoglobin content of the blood is lower than normal as a result of a deficiency of one or more essential nutrients, regardless ofthe cause of such deficiency.The causal relationship between iron deficiency and physical work capacity is evaluated through a systematic review of research literature, including animal and human studies. The presumed mechanism for this effect is the reduced oxygen transport associated with anemia; tissue iron deficiency may also play a role through reduced cellular oxidative capacity.The effects of anemia on physical activities and work performance have been studied in several countries such as Indonesia and China. A study in Indonesia found a significantly lower output of anemic Indonesian rubber plantation workers than the non-anemic workers. The Vietnam national survey in anemia l995 revealed that the prevalence of anemia was 40.2 % among non-pregnant women; it was also high among males around 20 %), whereas the prevalence of iron deficiency among non pregnant women was not very high (33.3 %). Therefore, multivitamin supplementation may reduce the anemia prevalence among Vietnamese non pregnant workers. Some main problems of an anemia control program (in scale of 113 districts of Vietnam) were side effects and the unpleasant taste of iron tablets; it caused the low compliance of iron tablet consumption. On the other hand, multi vitamin tablets have no side effect and have a palatable taste, thus it may be well accepted.