A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Beetischolar_main Juice with Jaggery on Anemia among Adolescent Girls in the Selected Urban Area at Rajkot

Anemia is the most prevalent nutritional problem worldwide and it is mainly caused due to iron deficiency. Its prevalence is highest among young children and women of childbearing age; particularly in pregnant women (Shah and Gupta, 2002). The nutritional anemia in adolescent girls attributes to the high maternal mortality rate, the high incidence of low birth weight babies, high prenatal mortality and the consequent high fertility rates.

A high prevalence of anemia among adolescent girls was found, which higher low economic strata were. It was seen that anemia affects overall nutritional status of adolescent girls. The problems of adolescence are multidimensional in nature and require holistic approach. Some of the problems faced by adolescents are anorexia nervosa, obesity, overweight, micronutrient deficiency, emotional problems, behavioral problems, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and identity and study problems (Siddharam et al., 2011).

The research design adopted was pre experimental Research Design. The conceptual framework for this study was based on general system theory modified ludwig von bertalanffy's. The study had been conducted in padadhari urban area, Rajkot.

Non-probability purposive sampling technique had been adopted to select the desired samples. The sample size was 40.The data collected by using sahli's method was administered to assess the level of hemoglobin among adolescent girls who have iron deficiency anemia.

The collected data were analysed by using both descriptive and inferential statistical methods,'t' test was used to evaluate relationship between pre test and post test of level of hb. The effectiveness of beetischolar_main juice with jaggery on iron deficiency anemia shows in post-test. Post-test revealed the improvement in Hb level with the use of beetischolar_main juice with jaggery. Out of 40 samples 6(15%) were having normal hemoglobin level and 14(35%) were having mild iron deficiency anemia and 16(40%) were having moderate iron deficiency anemia and 4(10%) were having severe anemia. It is also revealed that the mean difference was 0.757, standard deviation of pre-test was 1.078, standard deviation of post-test was 1.149, standard error was 0.071 and t-test was 8.703. Hence it was highly significant at p<0.001.