Abstract
Background: High altitude induces a lot of physiological changes in the human body and increase in hemoglobin concentration is one of them. This study aims to determine the effect of altitude on hemoglobin concentration among women aged 15-49 years of India. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional survey of 684913 women aged 15-49 years selected from NFHS-4. Association between various variables under study and hemoglobin concentration among study subjects was determined by students' independent t-test and one-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression. Results: Mean hemoglobin concentration of women increased signicantly (p<0.001) with the increase in hemoglobin concentration from 11.7 g/dl at an altitude of up to 1000 meters to 12.8 g/dl at 5000 meters. A statistically signicant positive correlation (r=0.150, p<0.001) was observed between hemoglobin level and altitude of residence of subjects. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed independent association between altitude and hemoglobin concentration among women. Conclusion: Hemoglobin concentration among Indian women increases signicantly with the altitude of their residence. The increment in hemoglobin concentration was estimated at 0.5 g/dl/1000m altitude which is comparable to the average increment of various populations worldwide.
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