• C.Helen
• Dr. R.Jagan Mohan

Anaemia is a serious and widespread public health problem which is disproportionately high among adolescent girls. The scale and magnitude of the problem affects the quality of life, both physiologically and socioeconomically, require the urgent adoption of known and effective measures. The main cause of anaemia is dietary iron deficiency. Other causes of anaemia include other micronutrient deficiencies, acute and chronic infections, and inherited or acquired disorders. Its prevalence was very high among adolescent girls. Anaemia, characterized by decreased levels of haemoglobin and tissue iron contents, is known to lead to several functional abnormalities with health consequences like impaired maximal work capacity, decreased immunological competence, behavioural abnormalities and reduced learning ability. In this context to plan effective interventions to combat both iron deficiency and anaemia there is an urgent need to have better information on the iron status of adolescent girls. This will enable the right interventions to be chosen in the first place and then, once pro¬grammes are in place, to have the right indicators to monitor their impact. The present study was an attempt to evaluate the iron status of adolescent girls and to find out the prevalence of anaemia, iron deficiency anaemia, iron deficiency and iron depletion among adolescent girls. A total of 621 adolescent girls aged 17-19 years studying in a women’s college at Madurai were participated in the study. Haemoglobin level was assessed for all the girls using cyanmethaemoglobin method and iron indicators like serum ferritin, serum iron and total iron binding capacity were assessed for a sub sample of 110 adolescent girls. Results revealed that the overall prevalence of anaemia in adolescent girls was found to be 82.8%, which is of severe public health problem. About 31.7%, 47.1% and 3.8% of the girls suffered from mild, moderate and severe anaemia respectively. Regarding the iron indicators 60% and 69% of the adolescent girls were deficit in serum ferritin and serum iron respectively which shows that majority of the girls had depleted iron stores. Around 44.5% of the girls had higher total iron binding capacity which indicates iron deficiency. Findings also revealed that about 30 adolescent girls had sufficient iron store and 10.9% of the girls had depleted iron stores. If this iron depletion is not corrected, it may indeed progress to iron deficiency. Results showed that the prevalence of iron deficiency among adolescent girls was 31% and 28.1% of the adolescent girls had iron deficiency anaemia. Thus the study confirms that adolescent girls constitute a group at risk of anaemia, iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia. Therefore specific attention should be given to them during adolescence to ensure that their dietary intake of iron is adequate to their requirements and thereby maintaining optimum health and wellbeing.

Anaemia, Iron deficiency, Adolescent girls, Iron indicators

"Evaluation of Iron Status of College going Adolescent girls", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.320-324, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907O38.pdf

"Evaluation of Iron Status of College going Adolescent girls", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp320-324, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907O38.pdf