Adolescent anaemia its prevalence and determinants: a cross-sectional study from south Kerala, India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20173318Keywords:
Prevalence, Anaemia, Adolescents, Kerala, Scholastic performanceAbstract
Background: Anaemia is currently one of the most common and intractable nutritional problems globally. During the period of adolescence, iron requirements increase dramatically in both boys and girls resulting in a higher probability of anaemia. The objective of the study was done to find out the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent boys and girls in Ambalapuzha Taluk and to assess the scholastic performance of the anaemic and non-anaemic in the study group.
Methods: The setting was different schools of Ambalapuzha Taluk and the study was cross sectional in nature. Study subjects were children studying in 5th -10th standards selected from aided, unaided and government schools. The total sample size of the study was 2789 subjects. Statistical analysis: Data was entered in Microsoft excel and was analysed using SPSS 16.0 version
Results: The prevalence of anaemia in the whole population was 53.5% (C.I-51.64-55.34%). The anaemia prevalence in females was 62.0% (C.I -59.33-64.6) and in males was 46.1% (C.I -43.55-48.61). Out of the total population 0.4% were severely anaemic [male 0.3% (5) and female 0.5% (6)]. The prevalence of moderate anaemia was 3.4% [male 2.8% (41) and female 4.2% (54)] and that of mild anaemia was 49.7 [male 43% (640) and female 57.4% (746)]. The factors that were found to be significantly associated with adolescent anaemia were female gender (62% vs. 46.1%), being overweight (59.7% vs. 53.2), not taking WIFS regularly (56.5% vs. 51.8% and 28.6% among irregularly taking WIFS and regular takers) and children coming from families with monthly income less than INR 1000.
Conclusions: On comparing the academic performance of anaemic and non-anaemic children it was found that the aggregate marks was significantly lower in the anaemic group (178.11 marks) compared to the non-anaemic group (217.63 marks) (p=0.001).
References
WHO, UNICEF. Iron Deficiency Anaemia Assessment, Prevention, and Control A guide for programme managers. 2001. Available at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/66914/1/WHO_NHD_01.3.pdf. Accessed on 10 May 2017.
WHO S-C-02. Prevention of iron deficiency anaemia in adolescents role of weekly iron and folic acid supplementation. Available at: http://apps.searo.who.int/PDS_DOCS/B4770.pdf?ua=1. Accessed on 16 June 2017.
Beard J. Iron requirements in adolescent females. J Nutr. 2000;130(2S Suppl):440S-442S.
Mary Story and Jamie Stang. Nutrition needs of adolescents. Available at: http://www.epi.umn.edu/ let/pubs/img/adol_ch3.pdf. Accessed on 8 May 2017.
National Nutrition Monitoring Beaurau. Diet and nutritional status of Population and Prevalence of Hypertension among Adults in rural areas. Available at: http://nnmbindia.org/nnmbreport06 nov20.pdf. Accessed on 22 June 2017.
National Nutrition Monitoring Beaurau. Diet and Nutritional Status of rural population. Available at: http://nnmbindia.org/nnmbreport2001web.pdf. Accessed on 12 April 2017.
Park K. Park’s Textbook of Prventive and social medicine. 23rd ed. India: Bhanot publishers; 2015: 642. Accessed on 10 May 2017.
Allen LH. Anemia and iron deficiency: effects on pregnancy outcome. Am J ClinNutr. 2000;71(5):1280–4.
Scholl TO, Hediger ML, Fischer RL, Shearer JW. Anemiavs iron deficiency: increased risk of preterm delivery in a prospective study. Am J ClinNutr. 1992;55(5):985–8.
Census of India 2011, Chapter 1. Available at: http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/PCA/PCA_Highlights/pca_highlights_file/India/Chapter-1.pdf. Accessed on 10 May 2017.
Gupta VK. To Study the Prevalence of Anaemia in Young Males and Females with Respect to the Age, Body Mass Index (BMI), Activity Profile and the Socioeconomic Status in Rural Punjab. Available at: http://www.jcdr.net/articles/pdf/1513/29-%202932.pdf. Accessed on 20 May 2017.
Amudha M. Prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls: A cross sectional exploratory study. 2016;2(3):630-2.
Suryanarayana MH. Inequality adjusted Human Development Index for India’s States. 2011: 1-27. Available at: http://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/ india/docs/inequality_adjusted_human_development_index_for_indias_state1.pdf. Accessed on 20 May 2017.
Manjula VD, Parameshwari P, Pothen L, Sobha A. Prevalence of anemia among female undergraduate students of Government Medical College Kottayam, Kerala. Int J Med Health Sci. 2014;3(2):133–8.
Shrinivasa BM, Philip RR, Krishnapali VK, Suraj A, Sreelakshmi PR. Prevalence of anemia among tribal women of reproductive age-group in Wayanad district of Kerala. Int J Health Allied Sci. 2014;3(2):120.
Rakesh P S. Anemia among school children from a rural area in Kollam District, Kerala. Kerala Med J. 2014;3(15):359-63.
Official Web Site of Alappuzha District, Kerala State, India. Available at: http://alappuzha.nic.in/ pages/aboutalpy-history.htm. Accessed on 27 May 2017.
Asha KP, Indu D, Ali A. Prevalence of Anemia among Adolescent girls (10-19 years) in Urtban Slums of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. Kerala Med J. 2010;3(4):143–7.
DEO, Alappuzha. Third working day report of educational institutions in Alappuzha district. 2016.
UNFPA. Youth India Info-Kerala. Available at: http://www.youthinfoindia.org/profiles/files/profiles/en/1/Youth%20Info_Kerala_IND032.pdf. Accessed on 12 June 2017.
Alappuzha District Religion Data - Census 2011. Available at: http://www.census2011.co.in/data/ religion/district/281-alappuzha.html. Accessed on 9 May 2017.
Amabalapuzha Grama Panchayat. Ambalapuzha Vikasana report. 2015.
Anagha V, Praseeda BK, Philip RR, Moosan H, Gopakumar S. Comparison of Prevalence of Anemia and Associated Factors among Adolescent Girls under WIFS with Non-WIFS Group in a School in North Kerala. Indian J Youth Adolesc Health. 2017;3(4):3–7.
Siva PM, Sobha A, Manjula VD. Prevalence of Anaemia and Its Associated Risk Factors Among Adolescent Girls of Central Kerala. J ClinDiagn Res JCDR. 2016;10(11):19–23.
Tesfaye M, Yemane T, Adisu W, Asres Y, Gedefaw L. Anemia and iron deficiency among school adolescents: burden, severity, and determinant factors in southwest Ethiopia. Adolesc Health Med Ther. 2015;6:189–96. Accessed on 20 May 2017.
Jáuregui-Lobera I. Iron deficiency and cognitive functions. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2014;10:2087–95.
More S, Shivkumar VB, Gangane N, Shende S. Effects of Iron Deficiency on Cognitive Function in School Going Adolescent Females in Rural Area of Central India. Anemia. 2013;2013:819136.
Reddy MLN. To study the scholastic performance in iron deficient school age children. Int J Pharma Bio Sci. 2014;4(2):202–9.
Aigner E, Feldman A, Datz C. Obesity as an emerging risk factor for iron deficiency. Nutrients. 2014;6(9):3587–600.
Pinhas-Hamiel O, Newfield RS, Koren I, Agmon A, Lilos P, Phillip M. Greater prevalence of iron deficiency in overweight and obese children and adolescents. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord J Int Assoc Study Obes. 2003;27(3):416–8.
Kordas K, Fonseca Centeno ZY, Pachón H, Jimenez Soto AZ. Being Overweight or Obese Is Associated with Lower Prevalence of Anemia among Colombian Women of Reproductive Age. J Nutr. 2013;143(2):175-81.
Shah SP, Shah P, Desai S, Modi D, Desai G, Arora H. Effectiveness and Feasibility of Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation to Adolescent Girls and Boys through Peer Educators at Community Level in the Tribal Area of Gujarat. Indian J Community Med. 2016;41(2):158-61.
Joshi M, Gumashta R. Weekly Iron Folate Supplementation in Adolescent Girls – An Effective Nutritional Measure for the Management of Iron Deficiency Anaemia. Glob J Health Sci. 2013;5(3):188–94.
Gawarika R. Prevalence of Anaemia in Adolescent Girls Belonging to Different Economic Group. Indian J Community Med. 2006;31(4):287-8.
Nam T, Shim JY, Kim B, Rah SY, Park K, Kim S, et al. Clinical Study on the Iron Absorption from Heme-Iron Polypeptide and Nonheme-Iron. Nutr Sci. 2006;9:295-300.
