A Retrospective Study to Estimate the Prevalence of Anemia and Associated Factors among First Year MBBS Students of Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha, Hisar.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Anemia is a most common public healthproblem affecting around 1.9 billion population of the world.It is a severe public health problem in India. Medical studentsare vulnerable to develop anemia due to irregular eatinghabits due to hectic study schedule. Anemia among this agegroup has significant health consequences resulting in poorcognition, decreased attention span and memory affectingthe performance, depressed immunity, repeated infections,increased fatigue, and shortness of breath, dizziness, blurredvision, low endurance and irregular menstruation.Material and Methods: This study is conducted among 100students of both gender taking admission in MBBS first yearat MAMC, Agroha. Hemoglobin values and other relevantdetails of the students were taken from academic sectionsubmitted at time of admission. World Health Organizationcriteria were taken to determine the severity of anemia.Modified B.G. Prasad scale was used to assess the socioeconomic status of the family. Data was first entered into MSexcel sheet and then was exported to SPSS version 20.0 forappropriate analysis.Results: Prevalence of anemia came out to be 54% amongstudy subjects. Difference between the mean levels ofhemoglobin across the genders came out be statisticallysignificant (P=<0.001).Conclusion: Prevalence of anemia is high among the studysubjects with more prevalence among females study subjects.There is a need to accelerate efforts for achieving control ofanemia by strengthening multi-sectoral partnership involvinggovernment departments, academic institutions, bilateralagencies and food industry.