Prevalence of Nutritional Anemia’s associated with Body Mass Index and Hemoglobin Concentration among Young University Females, Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

The research work is intended to assess the anemia’s prevalence and its relationship with body mass index among 160 young (18-24 years) female students of university. The austerity of anemia was identified by estimating the blood hemoglobin concentration. Assessment forms were prepared to gather information that includes age, height, body weight, and socioeconomic status. An eating habits and food frequency feedback form was utilized to compute the food habits and food choices of young girls of university. In this study according to WHO BMI classification, 48.12% of girls were found to be under weight, 31.25 % of girls were found to be normal, 20.62 % of girls were found to be overweight. The study showed that only 36.87% female students were normal (Hb > 12 mg/dl of for female), 63.12 % of girls were anemic (Hb <11.0 g/dl). Among anemic young girls 23.14% of girls were mild anemic (Hb <12mg/dl), 30.62 % moderate anemic (Hb 8–10 gm/dl), and 9.37 % severe anemic (<8 gm/dl). Diet pattern of girls were analyzed by using food frequency questionnaire. It was found that majority of students were used to skipped breakfast and irregular consumption of meat, fish, poultry, eggs, leafy greens vegetables, nuts, and seeds due to lack of knowledge on health, balance diet and negative effect of anemia.