Influence of Anemia on menarche age and occurrence of dysmenorrhea on menstruating girls in South India

Background: Anemia is the most common nutritional disorder worldwide. Anemia causes adverse consequences. Anemia affects the growth of adolescent girls as well as their attentiveness, memory and school performance and attendance. Girls constitute a more vulnerable group, particularly in India where the female child is a neglected one and are exposed to greater risk of reproductive mortality and morbidity. Menstrual cycle is an important indicator of women’s reproductive health. Therefore, a cross sectional study in urban area was conducted with an objective to know the prevalence of anemia and its impact on the age at menarche and occurrence of dysmenorrhea Methods and materials: A Cross-sectional study was conducted on 1000 healthy menstruating females aged 11-28 years. Standardized Self-reporting questionnaires were used to obtain relevant data. A 24 hour dietary recall method was applied for the purpose of getting the per day iron intake in diet. Blood samples were collected for biochemical assessment of anemia. Mean, S.D, Chi square and linear regression analysis was done by using SPSS version 16 Results: We found 13.5% of the subjects were anemic. The mean age at menarche was calculated to be 13.3±1.3 years. It was found that 133(13.5%) girls suffered from different degrees of anemia. Analysis of the results revealed that the age at menarche was significantly correlated with anemia. Results exhibited that a significantly high correlation was found between occurrences of dysmenorrhea with presence of anemia. Out of anemic group more than 80% experienced dysmenorrhea. The prevalence of anemia was also significantly correlated with the dietary intake of iron. Interestingly dysmenorrheic girls had less iron intake in the diet during menstruation days and the difference was significant. Correlation between the various degrees of dysmenorrhea and iron intakes was also found to be significant.Conclusion: Anemia is indeed public health problem. Nutritional deficiencies and Risk factors should be considered for prevention and control of anemia among this vulnerable group

Influence of Anemia on menarche age and occurrence of dysmenorrhea on menstruating girls in South India Keywords:

Anemia , Adolescents , Girls , Dysmenorrhea , Menarche