Prevalence of anemia & its association with various risk factors in slum dwelling adolescent girls of Raipur city

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescent girls are at high risk for anemia and malnutrition, which can have serious consequences throughout the reproductive years of life in the form of high maternal mortality, low birth weight babies and perinatal mortality. Since much, less attention paid to this age group and there is paucity of data to represent the magnitude of this problem so we have conducted this study.

Methods: This cross sectional observational study conducted in 385 adolescent girls in slums of Raipur city. Various socio-demographic factors, physical growth and nutritional status of the adolescent girls were assessed by anthropometric indices. Anemia detected by Sahli’s method. Data analyzed by appropriate statistical method, to find out the significance of association between various attributes.

Result: Majority of girls were vegetarians (54.54%). 57.66% were undernourished. Anemia found in 61.03% cases out of which mild anemia was in 45.19% and moderate in 13.50%. A statistically significant association found between anemia and status of menarche, diet, nutritional status and education of mother.

Conclusion: Majority of adolescent girls was suffering from mild anemia, which can be prevented by modification of diet, nutrition and other socio-demographic risk factors. This may require meticulous implementation of nutrition programmes and focus toward adolescent health.