ABSTRACT
Introduction: Globally anemia is one of the most important health problems. Adolescents are young people between the ages of 10 to 19 years. Anemia in adolescence may cause a wide range of functional consequences across the life course, including reduced resistance to infection, impaired physical performance and neurodevelopment, and suboptimal schooling outcomes. Aims and objectives: To estimate the prevalence of anemia, to determine the morphological types and patterns of anemia and to assess the etiological factors for different types of anemia among adolescent age group of Eastern India. Materials and methods: It is a retrospective observational study conducted in the department of Hematology at a tertiary care center in Bihar with a sample size of 200 cases. All patients belonging to adolescent age group (10-19 years) having sign and symptoms of anemia were chosen for study whereas children less than 10 years, patients on hematinic and Covid and viral positive cases were excluded. Clinical and demographic data along with hematological findings were retrieved from medical records and data were analysed by SPSS version 25. Results: 55% (n=110) patients were males while 45% (n=90) were females. Amongst males, 31.9% (n=23) were anemic in early adolescent age group and 39.4% (n=15) were anemic in age group 15-19years. While in females, 48.8% (n=21) were anemic in early adolescents and 78.7% (n=37) were anemic in late adolescent age group. Overall prevalence of anaemia among the study subjects was found to be 40.9 %. The prevalence of mild and moderate anaemia was almost similar, each comprising of 39.1% and 39 % respectively whereas 3.1% cases had severe anaemia. Conclusion: The prevalence of anemia amongst adolescents was a moderate public health problem. Factors associated with anemia were low socioeconomic status, rural background, larger family size, poor dietary habits and personal hygiene.