Prevalence of Iron Deficiency Anaemia in School and College Going Students of District Shaheed Benazirabad Sindh Province, Pakistan

The present study aimed to estimate the occurrence of Iron Deficiency anemia (IDA) in school and college going students (aged 11 - 18 years). Anemia is the most public health problem in school age children. It has a wide range of adverse results involving, poor cognitive performance, poor development of infants, preschool and school-aged children. Anemia also causes the impairment of physical capacity, work performance of adolescents and adults, reduction in immune competence and increased morbidity from infections in all age groups. Our study based on 1686 volunteers was randomly selected from different Government High schools and colleges. A Questionnaire was utilized for data collection. BMI was also calculated by dividing weight in kg by the square of height in meters. Hemoglobin (Hb), Hematocrite (Hct), Mean Corpuscular volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), white blood cell (WBC) and red blood cell was examined using Sysmex kx-21N hemoglobin auto analyzer (Hedwin, 2008). The total percentage of anaemic students (43.1%) and non-anaemic (56.9%) were observed in district Shaheed Benazirabad. The mean Hb level of anaemic students (11.1 ± 4.94) was observed. In males (12.7%) and females (30.4%) anemic was observed. The prevalence of anemia high (16.2%) was observed in the age of 14 - 16 years. The majority of anemic patients (30.2%) belonged to low income group. Area wise prevalence, in rural areas 27.8% and urban areas 15.3% volunteers anaemic was observed. Taluka wise occurrence of anaemia in taluka Sakrand was (14.6%), in taluka Kazi Ahmed (15.0%), in taluka Daur (8.0%) and in taluka Nawabshah was (5.5%). Clinically signs and symptoms showed, pale skin 57.7% and weakness 42.3% were observed in school children.