Prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls in a North Karnataka school: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: World Health Organization (WHO) has defined ‘Adolescence’ as a period between 10 and 19 years. Anemia is a condition characterized by reduction in the number of red blood cells and/or hemoglobin concentration. Adolescent girls are at increased risk of anemia due to rapid growth and developmental process. The objectives of the study were to estimate the prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls in one of the schools in North Karnataka.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among adolescent girls in one of the CBSE Schools of north Karnataka. In 347 adolescent girls, data collection was carried out in the month of August 2017 through hematological assessment. All the adolescent girls between grade 7 and 12 were included in the study. Statistical analysis was conducted using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0.Results: Out of 347 adolescent girls enrolled more than half 196 (56.5%) were mid adolescent with a mean age of 14.34±1.8. 54 (15.6%) were showing mild thinness and 14 (4.0%) were overweight. Overall prevalence of anemia was 44.4% (n=154). Where in 35.2% (n=122) were mild anemic followed by 8.9% (n=31) moderate anemia. Among the anemic girls, 79.8% (n=123) had attained their menarche and 6.5% (n=10) were reported passing worms in stools.Conclusions: Prevalence of anemia among school adolescent girls was found to be less. Among anemic girls, majority were showing mild anemia.

A Study to Assess the Prevalence of Anemia and Knowledge Regarding Anemia among Adolescent Girls of Selected Schools of Gurugram, Haryana

“…Most (74%) of adolescent girls had attained onset of menarche while 26% of adolescent girls had not attained onset of menarche. The findings are consistent with the findings of the study conducted by Toppo M, etal 8 where it was found that the most of girls (36.4%) belong to age group 14-16 years. Mostly (80%) of girls had attained menarche.…”

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

“…Various studies on prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls reported prevalence ranging from 39% to 90% in different parts of India. [ 12 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ] This vast range of prevalence of anaemia may be due to different methods of haemoglobin estimation, different study settings and different study periods. Few studies had adopted standard method for haemoglobin estimation, thus calling for a uniform prospective study of adolescent population using digital haemoglobinometer with high precision.…”

“…[ 19 ] in Udupi and Patil N et al . [ 17 ] in North Karnataka. This difference in findings may be due to different cut-off used to classify anaemia in different studies.…”

Evaluation of Prevalence and Knowledge about Anaemia and Their Determinants Among Adolescent Girls

“…Clinical signs, paleness of (eyes, lips, tongue, skin, nails, gums) reported among AG were statistically significant (p<0.005) to the prevalence of anaemia. Studies by some authors reported 28.12% of conjunctival pallor among adolescent girls [19], 16% pale skin and 5.7 % pigmentation of nails [18], 52.3% pallor of conjunctiva, tongue and nail bed [20] among the adolescent girls. Symptoms such as (breathlessness, giddiness, fatigue, loss of appetite, frequent headache, pica) was mostly observed in moderately anaemic followed by severely anaemic girls which is statistically significant.…”