Prevalence of Iron Deficiency Anaemia among Adolescent Girls

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2013 in the subject Health - Nutritional Science, grade: A, The University of Kashmir (institute of Home Science), course: M.Phil, language: English, abstract: The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia among adolescent girls and impact of health and nutrition education programme in changing their dietary behaviour. A sample of 200 adolescent girls was selected from different government schools of district Srinagar in order to arrive at dependable conclusion. A structured interview schedule was prepared and simple language was used but still in some schools questions had to be explained in local Kashmiri language to obtain appropriate information from the respondents. The study reveals that: 1.While analyzing the heights (cm) for adolescent girls both in normal and anaemic group it was found that there is statistically significant difference between the adolescent girls of particular age group (15 years) and recommended values. In case of weights (kg) there is insignificant difference between the adolescent girls and recommended values. 2.The BMI analysis of adolescent girls showed that 64.7% of the subjects had low weight, 56.9% had normal weight and 33.3% subjects were overweight. 3.Majority of the adolescent girls were found to be anemic. The baseline hemoglobin level of the adolescent girls was 9.8±1.7g%. After three months of intervention of Health and Nutrition Education Programme, the hemoglobin levels were increased and the levels were between 10.4±1.4g%. 4.The clinical assessment of the adolescent girls showed the signs of nutritional deficiencies. The menstrual history of adolescent girls showed 57.1% of the subjects were of the age of 12 years or more. 57.8% of the adolescent girls belonged to the category that had duration of flow for 3-4 days. 59.1% of the subjects had menstrual cycle duration of 28 days where as 55.6% had less than 28 days. It was observed that 58.1% of the subjects had regular menarche and 44.0 % had irregular menarche periods. Majority of the adolescent girls did not have history of past illnesses. 5.It was concluded that majority of the adolescent girls (56.6%) had iron deficiency anaemia.