Rural and Urban Variations in Prevalence of Anemia among Adolescent Girls in Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Introduction: Anemia is still a public health problem in India. The vulnerable groups for Anemia are children, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers. Anemic children show poorer attention span, memory and concentration leading to poor school performance. Among adolescent girls anemia decreases the capacity to do physical work, affects growth and does not prepare them adequately for mother hood. Objectives: • To know the prevalence of anemia in adolescent girls (10-19) in rural, urban areas of Visakhapatnam district. • To find out epidemiological determinants of Anemia among adolescent girls. • To compare the hemoglobin levels of adolescent girls in rural, urban slum areas of Visakhapatnam district. Methodology: Cross-sectional study conducted in Rural and Urban slum area of Visakhapatnam district. Sample size of 540 was selected by random sampling. Household survey was conducted to note Heights, Weights, and for Hb estimation along other epidemiological data. Hemoglobin estimation was done with Sahli's method. Diet survey was done with 1/5 th of sample i.e. among 54 adolescents in each area to know intake of iron and energy. Results: About 95.5% of adolescent girls in rural area and in urban area 81.5% are anemic. Highest prevalence was seen in the 14-15 years of age group. About 45.9% of adolescent girls in rural area and 21.5% in urban slum gave history of passage of worms in stool. In rural area 58.9%, in urban area 38.1% of girls were with BMI<18.5. In rural area the mean intake of iron 11.9mg/day and in urban area it was 10.5mgs/day. Mean Calorie intake was found 1111K.Cal/day in rural area, 1028K.Cal/ day in urban area.