Author(s): Tanmoy Kanti Panja, Nirmalya Kumar Sinha, Sumandev Chakrabortty, Smarajit Maiti, Dibyendu Dutta, Panchanan Kundu and Sutanuka Pal

Abstract:
Anaemia is a serious public health problem throughout the world and the women of childbearing age are more vulnerable to anaemia. Furthermore low socio-economic status aggravated this situation. In this scenario, a community based cross-sectional study has been undertaken among the women aged 15–49 years living in the rural areas of Pascchim Medinipur District belonging to the low socioeconomic status to find out the prevalence of anaemia and also to study the influence of age and nutritional status on the haemoglobin level of these women. This study showed that, 34.97% and 11.60% of the women were suffering from the under nutrition and overweight while prevalence of anaemia was 74.02%. It was also noted that anaemia was more predominant among the underweight group (76.17%) than the normal weight (74.01%) and overweight women (67.61%). This study also indicated that, age of the women greatly influenced the anthropometric parameters not the haemoglobin level. Interestingly, prevalence of anaemia was variable in different nutritional status at different age group. Further study is needed to establish the cause of variation of anaemia prevalence in nutritional state among the women.

Pages: 1639-1643  |  726 Views  126 Downloads