Prevalence of anemia among tribal women

BACKGROUND: A healthy citizen contributes to the development of a country. Tribes are considered as the primitive groups who are backward and have a shyness to contact with the community for their health services. Hence, there is a need to look into their health status. The study aimed to assess the prevalence of anemia among tribal women of Kasaragod district, Kerala. METHODS: The tribal settlements of Karadukka block panchayath of Kasaragod district were selected randomly as the setting, and the design adopted was a descriptive survey design. A descriptive survey was undertaken among 445 tribal women in the reproductive age group from the selected tribal settlements, and hemoglobin level was assessed using hemoglobin strip apparatus and classified as nonanemia, mild, moderate, and severe anemia based on World Health Organization classification. Analysis was done using SPSS Version 16. Frequency and percentage distribution was done for identifying the prevalence of anemia. RESULTS: The study found that the majority (89%) of the tribal women had anemia in which 62% and 11% of tribal women had moderate and severe anemia, respectively. CONCLUSION: Among tribal women, the majority have anemia which is an indicator of health status. To provide them with good health status, government and health professionals have to identify the causes and interfere in that through various promotive and therapeutic activities.