Authors: Jaya Supa Sooriya. J, Dr. N. Malathi
Abstract: Millions of individuals annually are affected by anaemia due to nutritional deficiency. In particular, adolescent girls experience rapid physiological changes that necessitate specific nutritional requirements. When the needs of the body are ignored, anaemia may ensue, leading to diminished concentration and reduced physical and mental capacity, which can subsequently impact educational attainment and future maternal health. Several studies have reported that nutrient deficiencies, parental education and income as separate determinants of anaemia, isolating biological parameters from others especially in first generation learners creating a gap by overlooking how these factors directly shape the diet and nutritional intake which ultimately leads to micronutrient deficiency in adolescent girls. This study presents an integrated perspective that links all three aspects, and studies the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls residing in rural and semi-urban Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. The primary data was collected from 423 adolescent girls aged 17 to 19, the outcome variable was anaemia, and the explanatory variable were age, BMI, haemoglobin count, parental education, mother’s occupation, household income, siblings, locality, disease history, market distance or shop distance, and family type. Descriptive statistics was used to obtain preliminary results, and independent sample t-test was used to obtain the significance between two different groups. Among the adolescent girls 17.5 % were normal (Hb ≥ 12.0 g/dL), 32.4 % were mildly anaemic (11.0 – 11.9 g/dL), majority of 44.7 % were moderately anaemic (8.0 – 10.9 g/dL), and 5.4 % come under severely anaemic category (< 8.0 g/dL). Among the variable, girls who have regular healthy diet with fruits and vegetables are less prone to anaemia compared to those have not consumed. This change in diet is influenced by parental education and household income, which showed statistically significant results. The potential reasons for poor nutrient intake in our study are attributed to low parental education as it affects nutritional choices and dietary intake, the income level of the parents acts as an economic barrier which directly impacts the access to nutrient rich food which is important to tackle anaemia.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22303949
