Nutritional Status and Anaemia in Medical Students of Sgrdimsar, Amritsar

Background: Anaemia is a global public health problem. Adolescents are vulnerable to iron deficiency because of increased iron requirements related to rapid growth. Considerable changes in growth pattern, lifestyle, dietary habits, and behavior are likely to influence the haemoglobin levels among adolescents belonging to high-income group. Aims & Objective: The objective of the study was to determine haemoglobin status and body mass index (BMI) in adolescents and study the correlation between them. Materials and Methods: Three hundred medical students of Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SGRDIMSAR, Amritsar, Punjab, India) belonging to both the sexes were studied after taking consent on format for anthropometric parameters using standard protocol. BMI of ≥18.5 kg/m2 was used to define undernutrition status. Haemoglobin level was estimated in g%. Statistical analyses were carried out using mean and standard deviation; Student’s t-test was used for measuring the effect of gender on correlation of Anaemia with BMI. Results: In our study, 86 (45.7%) girl students were found to have Anaemia (Hb <12 g%) with only 2 (1.7%) boys had haemoglobin levels <12 g%; 67 (60%) boys were overweight whereas 34 (18%) girls showed undernutrition. A positive correlation of haemoglobin with grades of BMI was found in both in boys and girls; however, none of the correlation showed significance to the levels of <0.05. Conclusion: Nutritional Anaemia and undernutrition prevailed more among girl students rather than boys in spite of being literate and having healthy nutritive diet. We recommend that adolescents be screened periodically for Anaemia, and multisectorial community-based approach should be adopted to combat this serious public health issue.