Prevalence of Anaemia and Its Associated Risk Factors Among Adolescent Girls of Central Kerala

Anaemia is the most common nutritional disorder worldwide. According to WHO adolescent age group is defined as life span between 10-19 years [1]. In India the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls were 56% and this amounts to an average 64 million girls at any point in time Studies conducted in different regions of India shown that the prevalence of anaemia was 52.5% in Madhya Pradesh, 37% in Gujarat, 41.1% in Karnataka, 85.4% in Maharashtra, 21.5% in Shimla, 56.3% in Uttar Pradesh, 77.33% in Andhra Pradesh, 58.4% in Tamilnadu and in Kerala (19.13% among college students and 96.5% in tribal area) [3][4] The major risk factors identified from the above studies were socio-economic status, blood loss during menstruation, nutritional status, hand hygiene and worm infestation.