Anaemia in Relation to Body Mass Index among First Year Female Nursing Students of Government Nursing College, Civil Hospital Ahmedabad

Background:

Adolescents especially girls are most vulnerable toward the problem of anaemia. In this age groups, anaemia can result in impaired immune function and cause higher vulnerability to infections, reduction of physical resistance and tolerance to efforts, as well as damage to growth and intellectual capacity, hence difficulty to concentrate and memorize, which can lead to negative result in the learning development and performance. The association between anaemia and body mass index (BMI) is a measure of nutrition and health status of adults. Therefore, studying the haemoglobin level and its relationship to BMI highlights the importance of this study.

Objectives:

1. This study was to assess the prevalence of anaemia in first year nursing female students of civil campus Ahmedabad.

2. To find Association between Body mass index with anaemia among study group.

Material and methods: This study was conducted among first year female nursing students (n=154) aged 18-20 years at public health lab of community medicine department of B.J medical college. haemoglobin level (g/dl) by sahli’s hemoglobinometer and BMI (kg/m2) were estimated. Anaemia was defined as Hb content <12 g/dl. Subjects were classified by BMI categories as underweight (BMI <18.5 kg/ m2) Normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.99 kg/m2), overweight (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) according to WHO. Then the relation between anaemia and BMI were statistically analysed. Semi structured Questionnaire was used for data collection.

Result:

Overall, 37.02% female students were anaemic. Of which 38.59% were underweight, 54.38% normal weight and 7.01% were above normal weight (over weight and obese). Mean value of haemoglobin was significantly decreased in underweight compared to overweight and obese (p<0.04) but Anaemia was not significantly associated with BMI. (x2 =0.3444, p=0.8418).

Conclusion:

The study concludes the occurrence of anaemia in undernourished individuals which were not significantly associated. Further studies are needed with larger sample size to document the factor that may be associated with anaemia in females.