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“Anemia-Tribe-specific Study and it’s Sociodemographic Association in Six Dominant Tribal Adolescents of Maharashtra, India.”
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| Author:
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PRAKASH V. PAWAR, SUJATA R. KANETKAR, MADHAV G. DEO, SATISH V. KAKADE
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| Abstract:
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Background and Objective: Anemia has always been a major health burden in underdeveloped countries. Despite several nutritional anemia studies, their tribe-specific information is inadequate. The foremost objective of this study is to generate the tribe-specific information on anemia and its association with sociodemographic characters and contribution of iron metabolism.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1135 healthy adolescents (Girls 549) from six leading Scheduled Tribes (STs) of Maharashtra, India.
Complete Blood Count (CBC) and serum iron with total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) was calculated using fasting venous blood collected in EDTA and Non-EDTA tubes respectively. Contribution of Iron deficiency in etiology of anemia was studied by monitoring two months of oral iron tablet supplementation.
Results: It was observed that 41.3% of tribal adolescents were underweight. Prevalence of anemia was observed 41.5% in both tribal adolescents with an average Hb 11.1 ± 1.3g/dl. 21.3% girls & 37.7% boys had mild anemia; however moderate anemia was 17.4% in adolescent girls. Microcytic hypochromic anemia was observed in a large number of tribal adolescents. Hb levels improved significantly after the iron supplementation with 35% recovery with a significant reduction in TIBC along and increase in the ferritin, but without microcytosis (MCV<80fl) improvement.
Interpretation and Conclusion: All tribal adolescents in this study were grossly underweight and anemia was a substantial health problem with a significant association with sociodemographic variables in tribal adolescents. Iron therapy observations suggested that Iron deficiency superimposed on the background of a-thalassaemia in tribal’s. This observation should be useful to a physician practising in tribal areas for the treatment of hemoglobinopathies.
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| Keyword:
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Tribal Adolescent’s, Anemia, Iron Deficiency, Scheduled tribes, Maharashtra, India.
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| EOI:
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| DOI:
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https://doi.org/10.31838/ijpr/2020.SP1.084
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| Download:
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