Prevalence of anaemia among school going adolescent girls attending Test, Treat and Talk (T-3) camp under Anaemia Mukt Bharat in Delhi

Abstract

Background: Adolescent period is signalized by marked physical activity and rapid growth spurt; therefore, they need additional nutritional supplements and are at utmost risk of developing nutritional anaemia. Anaemia play a major role in affecting the adolescents especially girls. On September 2019, Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Govt. of India directed to all state and district health authority to conduct Test, Treat and Talk (T-3) anaemia camps for celebration of nutrition month (Poshan Maah) in all government schools and colleges. The present study aimed to assess prevalence of anaemia and factors associated with it among school going adolescent girls attending T-3 camp in Delhi. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 203 adolescent girls in government girls' school in central district of Delhi. Hb estimation was done by HemoCue 201 and data regarding socio-demographic details, deworming, dietary preferences were collected. Clinical examination and anthropometric measurements were done by resident doctors. Data was analysed using STATA vs. 13. Results: The prevalence of anaemia was found to be 59% with mean (±SD) Hb of 11.3 gm/dl (±1.55) among 203 participants. The majority (48%, n = 119) of anaemic girls had mild degree of anaemia. Among 203 girls, 65% participants were of age 14–15 years with mean (±SD) age of 14.6 years (±1.18). There was a significant relationship between anaemia and diet, deworming status, and BMI ( P < 0.05). Conclusion: The study revealed that anaemia was highly prevalent among adolescent girls. Among anaemic girls, majority had mild anaemia. Factors like vegetarian diet, underweight, deworming and presence of pallor were found to be associated with anaemia. There is need to conduct T-3 camps at regular interval in all schools to curb the problem of adolescent anaemia.

Prevalence, knowledge, and related factor of anemia among school-going adolescent girls in a remote area of western Rajasthan

“…Anemia was found, with the mean Hb level of 9.92 (1.40) g/dL, which is much lower than the cut-off of 12 g/dL used to diagnose it. This number is far lower than what we found through studies conducted with a national sample of girls in school (11.3 g/dL) by Kamble et al ,[ 15 ] but slightly near in a study by Dhillon et al ,[ 16 ] (9.99 g/dL) and Ahankari et al ,[ 17 ] (10.1 g/dL) in rural areas of Maharashtra. However, all of these studies noted substantial regional variation and included data for community-based and urban area-based cross-sectional surveys of adolescent girls, who have better option on health and nutrition care as compared with remote area.…”

Prevalence of Anaemia in Adolescence Females between Ages of 18-21 in Tamilnadu

“…Mild anaemic (48%) are predominate cases found in those studies (14). In the view of food supplements, girls following the vegetarian diet system exposed to anaemia more than the girls following the nonvegetarian diet system.…”

Anemia, a moderate public health problem among adolescent school girls in Aysaita district, the pastoral community of the Afar region, Ethiopia

“…However, the prevalence was higher than studies in rural Ethiopia, 8.7% (Seyoum et al , 2019), Bahir Dar City, 11.1% (Mengistu et al , 2019), Nepal, 14.74% (Budhathoki et al , 2021) and lower than studies conducted in three districts of Ethiopia, 29% (Gebreyesus et al , 2019), eastern Ethiopia, 32% (Teji et al , 2016), southwest Ethiopia, 26.7% (Fentie et al , 2020), west Ethiopia, 39% (Tura et al , 2020), Oromia Ethiopia, 27% (Regasa and Haidar, 2019), Kenya, 26.5% (Nelima, 2015), Pakistan, 47.9% (Habib et al , 2020), India, range from 48.63% to 87% (Ahankari et al , 2017; Chandrakumari et al , 2019; Chapparbandi and Nigudgi, 2016; Arya et al , 2017; Kamble et al , 2021; Subramanian et al , 2022) and Indonesia, 44% (Agustina et al , 2021). The variation might be differences in sociodemographic status, educational status, health service accessibility, household food security, awareness of dietary diversity, dietary intake, study periods, study settings, sample size and target population.…”