Prevalence of Anaemia and Visual Impairment among School Going Adolescents of Patan City, Gujarat: A Cross Sectional Study

摘要

Background: Adolescence and young adulthood are periods of critical development and transition. Adolescent constitutes over 23% of the population in India. Nutrition and health needs of the adolescent are more because of more requirements for growth spurt and increase in physical activity. Objective: To study prevalence of anemia and visual impairment among school going adolescents of Patan city, Gujarat Methodology: The study was carried by Community Medicine Department, GMERS Medical College, Dharpur-Patan during period from September 2014 to August 2015. After taking the permission of principals of 9 schools and consent of the parents of adolescents, 841 adolescents from 10 schools of Patan city were examined for anemia and visual impairment. The data was collected by predesign, pretested proforma and analyzed using SPSS 17.0 (Trial Version) Results: Mean age was 15.8 ± 1.96 years. Out of 841, 432 (51.4%) were boys and 409 (48.6%) were girls. The study revealed that 67.0% girls were suffering from anaemia compare to 58.7% of boys. 117 (13.9%) adolescents had visual impairment. Conclusion: High prevalence of anemia and visual impairment among these adolescents needs great attention and health education.