Hema Divakar1, Shelly Dutta2, Bhagyashri Kulkarni3, G. V. Divakar4
BACKGROUND Anaemia is perceived to be a major public health problem especially among adolescent females .Findings from National Family Health Survey NFHS (2005-06) indicate that 56% of the adolescent girls in India are anaemic and, of these 17% suffer from moderate to severe anaemia. The prevalence of anaemia in female adolescent age group is still an understudied subject.
The aims of this study were to evaluate the recently initiated WIFS program for government school girls with respect to implementation and impact on trends in prevalence of Anaemia among adolescent girls in a Bengaluru rural school.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cross-sectional, descriptive exploratory research study was used. The choice of the school was based on commitment to administration of weekly iron-folic acid supplements (WIFS) programme. All the girl students from class 6th to 10th of Government High and Senior Secondary school (age group, 11-19 years) who were a part of WIFS were enrolled as study participants. Qualitative data on anaemia awareness and diet history, compliance, side effects were taken from these girls. General information on age, height, weight were collected and BMI calculated. Hb estimation was done by Haemocue method.
Statistical Analysis- Analysis were prepared by IBM SPSS Statistics version 22.
RESULTS
Out of the 95girls in the school, there were 81 girls (85.26%) reported to consume one tablet of Iron folic acid (IFA) weekly in the past 1 year, with no major side effects. The girls had knowledge about symptoms of anaemia and iron-rich diet. Hb estimates indicated 79.01% non anaemic, prevalence of anaemia was 20.99%; none of the girls had severe anaemia, 1.2% had moderate anaemia and the remaining 19.8% belonged to mild anaemia category, indicating a significant decline. The mean BMI of the study sample was 17.53 kg/m2 with 67.9% underweight and 6.2% overweight.
CONCLUSION
Overall, in this school, the WIFS program was found to be well implemented with good compliance. The study indicates a positive impact of WIFS programme with a decline in anaemia prevalence, compared to previous national estimates. WIFS seems to be an impactful strategy to prepare adolescents for the reproductive age group with adequate iron stores. However, the general nutritional status could be further improved to improve the BMI.
