survey status and nutritional behavior to prevention of iron deficiency anemia among high school girls in babol city

survey status and nutritional behavior to prevention of iron deficiency anemia among high school girls in babol city     mehrabian f [1] ,valipour r [2] *,kasmaei p [3] ,atrkar roshan z [4] ,mahdavi roshan m [5]     received: 30 oct , 2013 accepted: 21 jan , 2014   abstract:  background & aims: iron deficiency anemia is the most common nutritional problem in the world, and more than 30% of the world population are suffering from anemia. teenager girls are one of the vulnerable groups. this problem shows the inadequate intake of dietary iron, general malnutrition or low iron intake in the diet. this study aims to examine the nutritional status of iron deficiency anemia in high school female students.  materials & methods: in this cross- sectional study, 100 female students from high schools were selected by multi-stage random selection in 2013. tools for data collection were questionnaires, and blood tests that were taken by their written consent from their parents. 2 ml blood sample was taken for blood measurement, and serum ferritin. the collected data were analyzed using statistical software spss18. result: the mean of hemoglobin was 12/35 ± 1/03, hct 36/90 ± 2/84, and ferritin 28/6 ± 18/22. prevalence of anemia was 33%, iron deficiency anemia was 15% and iron deficiency was 28%. sixty percent of students had medium knowledge and 27% of the participants had good practice, and their attitudes toward nutritional behavior was moderate. conclusion: according to the who classification, and according to the findings of this study, this public health problem is assessed as moderate. appropriate measures such as training sessions to increase knowledge, changing the people’s attitude, is necessary to prevent iron deficiency anemia.  keywords: nutritional behavior, iron deficiency, anemia, high school girls     address: school of health, guilan university of medical sciences. opposite of alzahra hospital. shahid siadaty street . namju boulevard, rasht, iran.   tel: (+98)9112152554   email : [email protected]   [1] assistant professor, department of health education and promotion, school of health, guilan university of medical sciences, rasht, iran.   [2] msc student, department of health education and promotion, school of health, guilan university of medical sciences, rasht, iran. (corresponding author)   [3] instructor, department of health education and promotion, school of health, guilan university of medical sciences, rasht, iran.   [4] instructor, department of biostatistics, school of medical, guilan university of medical sciences, rasht, iran.   [5] phd candidate, department of nutrition science, school of nutrition science, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran .