International Journal of Health & Allied Sciences

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year
: 2014  |  Volume : 3  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 120--124

Prevalence of anemia among tribal women of reproductive age-group in Wayanad district of Kerala


BM Shrinivasa1, Rekha Rachel Philip2, Vijaya Kumar Krishnapali3, Asha Suraj3, PR Sreelakshmi3 
1 Department of Community Medicine, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeswara Medical College, Mysore, Karnataka, India
2 Department of Community Medicine,Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India
3 Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

Correspondence Address:
B M Shrinivasa
Department of Community Medicine, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeswara Medical College, Mysore 580 004, Karnataka
India

Context: Nutritional anemia is a major public health problem of women in India. Kerala has good health indicators in comparison to other states of India. However, the health of tribals, one of the marginalized communities, of the state is poor. Aims: Primary objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of anemia among tribal women of 15-45 years of age of Wayanad District. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional survey in 10 clusters of Wayanad district of Kerala. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was done among a sample of 347 tribal nonpregnant, non-lactating women aged between 15-45 years in 10 clusters of Wayanad on the basis of probability proportional to size in 2010. Anemia was diagnosed by estimating the hemoglobin concentration in the blood with the use of direct cyanmethemoglobin method. Results: The mean hemoglobin of the study group was 9.04 gm% (Standard deviation (SD) 1.64) and coefficient of variance is 18.14%. Prevalence of anemia was found to be 96.5% (n = 335) (Standard error = 0.986 and 95% confidence interval, CI, 94.53, 98.47). Mild anemia (Hemoglobin = 10-11.9 gm%) was found to be 30.5%. About (55.9%) had moderate degree anemia (Hb 7-9.9 gm%). Prevalence of severe anemia (<7 gm%) was found to be 10.1%. Conclusions: Prevalence of anemia was substantially high among women of reproductive age group of Wayanad.


How to cite this article:
Shrinivasa B M, Philip RR, Krishnapali VK, Suraj A, Sreelakshmi P R. Prevalence of anemia among tribal women of reproductive age-group in Wayanad district of Kerala.Int J Health Allied Sci 2014;3:120-124


How to cite this URL:
Shrinivasa B M, Philip RR, Krishnapali VK, Suraj A, Sreelakshmi P R. Prevalence of anemia among tribal women of reproductive age-group in Wayanad district of Kerala. Int J Health Allied Sci [serial online] 2014 [cited 2024 Mar 29 ];3:120-124
Available from: https://www.ijhas.in/article.asp?issn=2278-344X;year=2014;volume=3;issue=2;spage=120;epage=124;aulast=Shrinivasa;type=0