Abstract
Background and Objective:Anemia is a common health problem worldwide. This problem is most commonly faced by 18 to 25 years of females. Medical students especially female hostelites poses high risk of anemia because of their poor eating habits, breakfast skipping, long schedule in college, burden of medical studies, clinical postings, and extra-curricular activities. Therefore the current study was designed to determine the hemoglobin status in young female medical students. We also elucidate its association with BMI.Methods:A cross sectional study was conducted at The University of Faisalabad during December 2015 to February 2016. A total of 221 female students were recruited by convenient sampling technique. All relevant information about participants was taking by administering structured questionnaire. Participants were categorized as hostelities and day scholars for comparison. Study subjects were also sub grouped on the bases of their BMI. Hemoglobin, MCV, MCH and MCHC were estimated at Madina Teaching Hospital Faisalabad. Statistical analysis was performed on SPSS 20.Results:Mean age of the study subjects was 19.92 ±0.93. 33.4% of the students were found to be anemic. Significantly high number of hostelites (39.2%) were anemic as compared to day scholars (23.1%) (P value= 0.015*). On analyzing by BMI categories, greater number of underweight subjects was found to be anemic as compared to normal and overweight subjects.Conclusion:Anemia is more prevalent in hostelites as compared to day scholar female medical students which might also affect the efficiency of these students.
Highlights
Nutritional anemia is a global problem increasing in developing countries.[1]
Previous documentations in 2015 from Lahore, a city of Pakistan has reported that 50% of the Pakistani females of reproductive age were suffering from anemia and 21% of the females of age group 9-29 years face the same problem in Punjab, a province of Pakistan.[3]
Analysis by Body mass index (BMI) categories in the present study showed that percentages of anemia was found to be high among underweight students (56%) as compared to normal (23.2%) and overweight students (34.9%)
Summary
Nutritional anemia is a global problem increasing in developing countries.[1] This problem is most commonly faced by young females of 18 to 25 years of age. Medical students especially female hostelites poses high risk of anemia because of their poor eating habits, breakfast skipping, long schedule in college, burden of medical studies, clinical postings, and extra-curricular activities. The current study was designed to determine the hemoglobin status in young female medical students. High number of hostelites (39.2%) were anemic as compared to day scholars (23.1%) (P value= 0.015*). Conclusion: Anemia is more prevalent in hostelites as compared to day scholar female medical students which might affect the efficiency of these students
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
