Prevalence of Anemia among Adolescent girls (10-19 years) in Urban Slums of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation
Abstract
Background: Adolescent represents a window of opportunity to prepare for a healthy adult life. Anemia is the most important nutritional deficiency during this period. Mild to moderate anemia usually appear in the early life and if proper intervention is given in adolescent age, majority of maternal and perinatal mortalities and morbidities can be prevented. This study was conducted to find out the prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls in slums where standard of living as well as the knowledge about anemia is very poor.
Objectives: To find out the prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls (10 -19 years) residing in urban slums of Thiruvananthapuram corporation and to assess the knowledge about anemia among adolescent girls.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 150 adolescent girls of age 10 to 19 years in 10 randomly selected urban slums of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. According to WHO criteria anemia is found to exist in adolescent girls when hemoglobin value less than 12g/dl. HemoCue method was used for hemoglobin estimation.
Results: It was found that the prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls was 48%. 76% had mild anemia, 21% had moderate and 3% had severe anemia. Adequate knowledge about anemia was there in 20.3% in 10 to 14 age group and 34.2% in the 15 to 19 age group. Significant association (χ²=4.33, p<0.05) was obtained between anemia and knowledge about anemia.
Conclusion: The prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls living in urban slums of Thiruvananthapuram city was found to be 48% and there is a significant association between prevalence of anemia and knowledge regarding anemia. The study shows anemia is a major public health problem among adolescent girls living in urban slums of Kerala, the south Indian state. Increasing awareness through health education programs, screening for disease and timely interventions like Iron and folic acid supplementation and de-worming at school levels may help in tackling this menace.
When publishing with Kerala Medicial Journal (KMJ), authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Work includes the material submitted for publication and any other related material submitted to KMJ. In the event that KMJ does not publish said work, the author(s) will be so notified and all rights assigned hereunder will revert to the author(s).
The assignment of rights to KMJ includes but is not expressly limited to rights to edit, publish, reproduce, distribute copies, include in indexes or search databases in print, electronic, or other media, whether or not in use at the time of execution of this agreement.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
The author(s) hereby represents and warrants that they are sole author(s) of the work, that all authors have participated in and agree with the content and conclusions of the work, that the work is original, and does not infringe upon any copyright, propriety, or personal right of any third party, and that no part of it nor any work based on substantially similar data has been submitted to another publication.
