Vol. 2, Issue 7 (2013)

Author(s):
Raju Kumar Dubey, P. Padmavathi, Archana Jayan, Narayan Gautam, Youbraj Neupane, Amar Kumar Sinha

Abstract:
A retrospective hospital based study was carried out in south western Nepal to determine the prevalence of anemia in adolescent females. Cyanmethemoglobin method was used for determination of hemoglobin level. Out of 1888 subjects 793 adolescents were diagnosed as anemic. The prevalence of anemia among adolescent population was 42% and affected with various grades of anemic condition; 59.14% being mildly anemic and 32.02% moderately anemic while 8.82% suffered from severe anemia. Mean and SD of age and hemoglobin was 15.59±2.35 years & 9.85±1.87 gm/dl among anemic population respectively. The mean and SD of age and hemoglobin was 15.39±2.39 years & 12.32±2.41 gm/dl among total population respectively. This study highlights high prevalence of severe anemia among adolescents female. There is an urgent need to develop international programmes in the SWN in the form of nutritional supplementation along with prophylaxis of iron, folic acid tablets for prevention of anemia.