Open Access
Subscription Access
Open Access
Subscription Access
Can we Afford to Ignore the Ubiquitous Health Problem for Indians - Iron Deficiency Anemia?
Subscribe/Renew Journal
The persistent high prevalence of anemia in the Indian population is likely to be a major health hazard. Since mild or moderate anemia is often undetected or uncared for, it results in an imperceptible or unrecognized poor quality of life. It increases the risk to health and to life in many cases. This short review is meant to highlight the unsuspected prevalence, and unperceived effects of anemia in the life of millions of Indians. The national health programs cannot succeed to the desired extent unless healthcare providers understand the nature of anemia and the role of iron supplements. This write up is meant to implore all the healthcare givers and the society at large to relook into the health of the community after relinquishing the lower standards of hemoglobin, and to highlight the importance of being watchful for anemia as an associated or primary cause of illness, a multifactorial malady and to start investigating and treating it with due zeal that the Indian population deserves. We hope that with renewed enthusiasm for detection and management of anemia, the health and performance indicators of India will show a respectable increase. The health of a nation is its wealth!
Keywords
No Keywords.
Subscription
Login to verify subscription
User
Font Size
Information
- International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS) and ICF. 2017. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015-16: India.
- World Health Organization. The global prevalence of anemia in 2011. WHO, Geneva, 2015.
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, UNICEF, Population Council. Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) National Report. New Delhi. 2019.
- Anemia Mukta Bharat- A program by Government of India. 2018. Available from: anemiamuktabharat.info.
- Cappellini M, Comin-Colet J, Francisco A, Dignass A, Doehner W, Lam CS, Macdougall IC, Rogler G, Camaschella C, Kadir R, Kassebaum NJ. Iron deficiency across chronic inflammatory conditions: International expert opinion on definition, diagnosis, and management. Am J Hematol. 2017;92(10):1068–1078.
- Sunuwar DR, Singh DR, Chaudhary NK, Pradhan PMS, Rai P, Tiwari K. Prevalence and factors associated with anemia among women of reproductive age in seven South and Southeast Asian countries: Evidence from nationally representative surveys. PLoS ONE. 2020;15(8):e0236449. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.
- Sachdev HS, Porwal A, Acharya R, Ashraf S, Ramesh S, Khan N, Kapil U, Kurpad AV, Sarna A. Haemoglobin thresholds to define anaemia in a national sample of healthy children and adolescents aged 1-19 years in India: a populationbased study Lancet Glob Health. 2021;9(6):e822-31.
- Addo OY, Yu EX, Williams AM, Young MF, Sharma AJ, Mei Z, Kassebaum NJ, Jefferds MED, Suchdev PS, Evaluation of hemoglobin cutoff levels to define anemia among healthy individuals. JAMA Network Open. 2021;4:e2119123. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.19123
- Lynch S, Pfeiffer CM, Georgieff MK, Brittenham G, Fairweather-Tait S, Hurrell RF, McArdle HJ, Raiten DJ. Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development (BOND)-Iron Review. J Nutr. 2018 Jun 1;148(suppl_1):1001S-1067S. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxx036.
- Charles CV. Iron deficiency anemia: A public health problem of global proportions. Public Health - methodology, environmental and systems. May 2012;109-130.
- Sinha Dipa. Explained: Despite Govt Claims, India’s Health Budget Only Around 0.34% of GDP. The Wire. Available from: https://science.thewire.in/health/union-health-budgetnirmala-sitharaman-covid-19-pmasby-allocation-gdpexpertanalysis/
- Collaborators GB. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. The Lancet. 2016; 390:1211-1259.
- De Falco L, Sanchez M, Silvestri L, Kannengiesser C, Muckenthaler MU, Iolascon A, Gouya L, Camaschella C, Beaumont C. Iron refractory iron deficiency anemia. Haematologica. 2013;98(6):845-853. doi:10.3324/haematol.2012.075515.
- Udipi SA, Joshi JV, Singh G, Sawarkar S, Phadke A, Prabhu A, Rastogi N, Vaidya AB. Phytoactives as Chelators of Iron with Potential to Mitigate its Side Effects and Enhance Iron Absorption. (MS submitted for publication).
- Federation of Obstetrics & Gynecology of India. FOGSI General Clinical Practice Recommendations. 2020. Available from: https://www.fogsi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/ gcpr-recommendation-ida.pdf
- Pēna-Rosas JP, De-Regil LM, Malave HG, Flores-Urrutia MC, and Dowsell T. Intermittent oral iron supplementation during pregnancy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;10:CD009997.
- Alves C, Saleh A, Alaofè H. Iron-containing cookware for the reduction of iron deficiency anemia among children and females of reproductive age in low- and middleincome countries: A systematic review. PLoS One. Sep 2019;14(9):e0221094. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221094. PMID: 31479458; PMCID: PMC6719866.
- Hurrell RF. Iron Fortification Practices and implications for iron addition to salt. J Nutr. 2021;151:3S-14S.
- Girard AW, Dzingina C, Akogun O, Mason JB, MacFarland DA. Public health interventions, barriers, and opportunities for improving maternal nutrition in Northeast Nigeria. Food & Nutrition Bulletin. 2012;33:S51-S70. https://doi.org/10.1177/15648265120332S104.
Abstract Views: 261
PDF Views: 0