Prevalence of Anemia among Higher Primary School Girls in Selected Urban and Rural Schools

Introduction: Anemia is one of the world’s most wide spread health problem having major consequences for human health as well as social and economic development and affecting both developing and developed countries 1. The body required increased amount of iron when growing rapidly and when frequent blood loss occurs through menstruation, hence adolescent girls are significantly high risk of developing iron deficiency. This is especially true for some adolescent girls who experience heavy blood loss during menstruation 2. Objective: To determine and compare the prevalence of anemia among higher primary school girls between urban and rural schools. Methodology: A descriptive comparative study was conducted among 450 (urban) and 450 (rural) school girls at higher primary schools, Belgaum, Karnataka. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select the school girl children. Haemoglobin estimation was done by using Sahli’s method to determine anemia. Results: Higher prevalence of anemia was observed to be (90%) among rural higher primary school girl children compared to the urban (79.8%) counterpart. The occurrence of anemia reported through the study, was associated with age, class, religion of the child, parents’ occupation (p value<0.05) in urban and rural higher primary school. In addition, there was also significant association was found between prevalence of anemia and type of diet, previous source of information, parents’ education, family income of participants (p value <0.05) in rural school. Conclusion: Present study showed higher anemia prevalence in rural school girl children compared to urban. Early intervention is utmost required by considering these factors along with the existing programs will help directly to overcome this issue.