A study to assess the prevalence of anaemia amongst adolescent girls residing in selected slum of Bhopal city

Abstract

Background: Adolescence has been defined by the WHO as the period of life spanning the ages between 10 to 19 years. This is a vulnerable period in the human life cycle for the development of nutritional anaemia. The prevalence of anaemia among adolescents is 27% in developing countries and 6% in developed countries. The study was done with the objective to study the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls of selected urban slum of Bhopal.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted for a period of 3 months on adolescent girls residing in selected urban slum of Bhopal. 98 adolescent girls who were registered in Anganwadi and present at time of study were interviewed. The data regarding their socio-demographic profile, anthropometric measurements were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Hemoglobin level was also estimated using Hemocue (Hb 201) and participants were classified as having no, mild, moderate and severe anaemia based on WHO grading of anaemia. Data was compiled using MS Excel and analysed using Epi info 7.

Results: Anaemia was present in 57.65% girls. Out of which 34.7% had mild, 44.9% had moderate and 20.4% had severe anaemia. 29.4% knew improper diet as a cause of anaemia followed by Vitamin deficiency (25.8%) and iron deficiency (22.3%). 29.4% girls did not know any cause of anaemia. Similarly 29.4% and 51.7% of study participants did not know of any symptoms and treatment of anaemia respectively.

Conclusions: The overall prevalence of anaemia was high among study participants. Knowledge regarding anaemia, its symptoms, causes and treatment was very poor among study participants.