ABSTRACT
Whether the Copper sulphate specific gravity method is a valid screening test to detect anaemia at the field level and if it is affected adversely by any common prevalent nutritional and physiological or obstetric factors of the women. To find out the validity of Copper sulphate specific gravity method to detect anaemia at 11 gm% and 12 gm% haemoglobin level among women. Cross-sectional, Observational, Epidemiological, Community-based study. Urban Health Clinic at Ghoshbagan slum of Kolkata, the field practice area of Dept. of Community Medicine, R G K M C and H. Women of 10 - 45 years of the area, selected by systematic random sampling. The study recruited 373 women from the slum area. For haemoglobin level of 12gm%, the sensitivity was 91.19%, specificity was 82.14%, Predictive value for positive test was 92.25% and that for negative test was 80.0%. Respective results for Haemoglobin level of 11gm% were 81.53%, 96.30%, 94.12% and 87.76%. Similar high values of validity were obtained for different physiological and nutritional status of the women. The results implied that copper sulphate specific gravity method is a valid screening procedure for detection of anaemia irrespective of differing physiological and nutritional statuses of women