To Study the Serum Iron and Vitamin B12 Deficiency in Children in Different Communities in the South Indian State of Telangana: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4 2015-2016) documented the prevalence of anaemia as overall more than three-quarters (76 percent) of children. Anaemia is the most common Haematological disease of the paediatric age group. Anaemia is the highest prevalence in developing countries. The population differences in the prevalence of anaemia are explained by environmental factors affecting nutrition, chief among these are economic status, ethnic customs & geographic considerations. Furthermore, there is very limited information on prevalence of Iron and B12 deficiencies among children belonging to different communities with culturally defined eating habits. In the present study carried out to compare the Serum Iron & Vitamin B12 in children of different communities in the South Indian state of Telangana. Material & Methods: In this population based cross sectional observational study was conducted on the department of paediatrics in the Chalmeda Anandrao Institute of Medical Sciences, Karimnagar, Telangana, during the period from 1st January 2020 to till reached the sample size. The study was conducted with the approval from the institutional review and ethical committees. In this study includes children were of the age between 5 to 18 years with the 3 different communities like, Hindu, Muslim & others community. Results: In the above table we shows that the Others community of age is 12.85 ± 2.65 years, Hindu community of age is 12.76 ± 3.46 years & Muslim community of age is 14.96 ± 2.00 years. In our study, the prevalence of Serum Iron was found to be 21.7% (26 out of 120) & prevalence of Vitamin B12 was found to be 50.0% (60 out of 120). Conclusion: The overall prevalence of anaemia (low Haemoglobin) was found to be 43.33%. There was no significant difference between the prevalence of anaemia in 3 different communities. Keywords: Serum Iron, Vitamin B12, Anaemia, Deficiency.