NUTRITIONAL ANAEMIA AMONG CURRENTLY MARRIED FEMALES IN THE REPRODUCTIVE AGE GROUP IN RURAL JAMMU

BACKGROUND: More than one-third of world's women are anaemic with majority residing in developing countries and that too in rural areas. The most highly affected population in the decreasing order is pregnant women, school age children, non-pregnant women and preschool children. Nutritional anaemia has recently been ranked as the third leading problem among the women of reproductive age group. Most of the studies conducted so far have focused on pregnant ladies only so it was decided to take all the females in the reproductive age group as the study subjects. AIMS: To find out the prevalence of nutritional anaemia among married females of reproductive age group i.e., 15-49 years of age in a rural area of Jammu District. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Across-sectional study was undertaken in rural settings. METHODS AND MATERIAL: House to house visits were made and 288 married females in the reproductive age group were interviewed and their blood samples were taken for necessary haematological investigations which were done at GMC Jammu. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Percentages and chi-square test. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: More than 90% of the females were suffering from anaemia. Majority of them were having microcytic hypochromic blood picture. More than 50% of the subjects were having moderate anaemia as per WHO classification. Nutritional anaemia was seen in 70.47% of the study subjects while the remaining females were having either no anaemia or anaemia due to other medical reasons. The prevalence of nutritional anaemia was even more among pregnant and lactating females and this finding was found to be statistically significant.