An Analysis of Societal Determinant of Anemia among Adolescent Girls in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

Abstract

Societal determinants of health are of recognized importance for understanding the causal association of society and health of an individual. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a challenging public health problem across the globe instigating from a broader sociocultural background. It is more prevalent among pregnant women, children under the age of five years, and adolescent girls. Adolescent girls are vulnerable to develop IDA because of additional nutritional demand of the body needed for growth spurt, blood loss due to onset of menarche, malnourishment, and poor dietary iron intake. In this study, we explore the societal determinants of anemia among adolescent girls in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Muzaffarabad division of AJK on randomly selected 626 adolescent girls. The data were collected using a pretested self-administered interview schedule comprising mainly closed-ended questions with a few open-ended questions. Descriptive statistics was computed for describing the data, and bivariate regression and logistic regression were used to determine the association of anemia with its societal determinants. Multiple linear regression is used to determine the relationship of different determinants (independent variables) with the hemoglobin level (dependent variable) of the respondents. The prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls is 47.9%, of which 47.7% have mild anemia, 51.7% have moderate anemia, and 5.7% have severe anemia, which reveals that anemia is a severe public health problem among adolescent girls in the study area. The findings aver that anemia occurrence was significantly associated with the respondent’s and her parental education, economic well-being, prevalence of communicable diseases, menstrual disorder, exercise habits, meals regularity, and type of sewerage system.

Prevalence and determinants of anemia among young (15–24 years) women in Ethiopia: A multilevel analysis of the 2016 Ethiopian demographic and health survey data

“…Married young women had higher odds of anemia as compared to unmarried women. This is in contrast with the finding of prior studies [ 3 , 13 , 19 ]. This may be because married women can give birth and are vulnerable to pregnancy and birth-related bleeding, as well as complications that may raise the risk of anemia [ 20 ].…”

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Blood Donation Among Undergraduate Medical Students in Azad Kashmir

“…The most common barrier to blood donation was stated as a lack of fitness as perceived by the students. It is unexpected of a student population at a medical college to state such a response as a consensus but one plausible explanation could be that our study population comprised 70% of female participants and due to endemic anemia in adolescent girls (47.9%) in this region, it could be a reality [23]. However, this factor needs to be addressed in further studies.…”

Socio-Cultural Risk Factors of Anemia among Children under Five Years of Age in District Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan

“…Majority of studies conducted in Pakistan and AJK investigated the prevalence of anemia among women of reproductive age especially during pregnancy [10][11][14][15][16][17]. Furthermore, data are still lacking to determine the societal factors contributing to anemia among Pakistani children.…”

“…Furthermore, data are still lacking to determine the societal factors contributing to anemia among Pakistani children. Along with medical treatment, sociocultural factors play a pivotal role in keeping a person healthy and are important for understanding the causal association of society and anemia [16].…”