International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | August 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 8 Page 3137 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Nasreen S et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2020 Aug;7(8):3137-3141 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Estimation of hemoglobin for screening of anemia in undergraduate students in Hyderabad city, India Syeda Nasreen, Uzma N. Syeda*, Naseem Unnisa INTRODUCTION WHO defined anemia as a condition where the number of RBC is less. 1 Anaemia may occur due to nutritional inadequacies or any other clinical conditions like malabsorption and hookworm infestation where intestinal absorption of iron altered due to gut environment. Nutritional anaemia can also be defined as the condition resulting from the inability of the erythropoietic tissue to maintain a normal hemoglobin concentration due to inadequacy of one or more nutrients. 2 Adolescence is the period of the growth spurt in all aspects hence their nutritional status plays a vital role in the progress. 3 Anaemia is widely prevalent among all age groups, but since the requirement of iron is more and loss of around 12.5-15mg iron each month through menstruation, adolescent girls are more vulnerable to anaemia. 4 The prevalence of anemia in adolescent girls is 56% in India and the prevalence of anemia in the state of Telangana among women aged 15-49 years is 56.7%. 5,6 A report by Kasturba Bora studied the trends and prevalence of severe anemia in India showing severe anemia (HB < 7g/dl) in Telangana among the other states. The trends also varied between rural and urban areas. 7 The rate of incidence in urban area women 15-49 years of Telangana is 55% and in the rural area is 58.1%. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-2 data 2015- 2016, adolescent girls aged between 15-19 years shows iron deficiency anemia contributing to 59.4%. 8 Although there is a fall in the prevalence of anemia as per the NFHS-2 from 67.4% (2005-06) to 59.4% due to the ABSTRACT Background: Anemia is a condition that is marked by low levels of hemoglobin in the blood. Iron is a key component of hemoglobin, and iron deficiency is estimated to be responsible for half of all anemia globally. The present study was conducted to find out the prevalence of anemia among undergraduate students of (17-21 years) in Hyderabad city, India. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in different UG colleges in urban areas of Hyderabad for 3 months and a total 57 women participants were selected to volunteer study. All participants underwent screening using anthropometry with haemoglobin estimation using Sahli’s method. The 24-hour dietary recall was also recorded and analysed to assess the nutritional adequacy of the diet. Results: Prevalence rate of iron deficiency anemia was found to be 57.89 per cent, of the total 54.38 per cent were mild anemic and 3.51 percent were moderately anemic. Conclusions: Nutritional anaemia is one of the most preventable forms of anaemia if resources available individualize therapy focusing on the confluence of various causative factors should be implemented. Keywords: Haemoglobin, Nutritional deficiency, Nutritional anaemia, Sahli’s method Department of Nutrition, MDPGC, Hyderabad, India Received: 27 May 2020 Revised: 07 July 2020 Accepted: 08 July 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Uzma. N. Syeda, E-mail: syeda2uzmanabeela@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20203390