Effect of Medicinal Iron Supplementation and Nutrition Education on Anaemic Adolescent Girls of Low Income Families

Abstract

Micronutrient malnutrition, a term commonly used to refer to vitamin and mineral nutritional deficiencies affect almost two billion people worldwide or approximately one third of the human race. The problem of malnutrition encompasses a broad spectrum of deficiencies, of which the most devastating is the deficiency of one or more of the three micro nutrients namely iron, vitamin A and iodine. Nutritional or iron deficiency anaemia is a pathological condition in which the level of haemoglobin in the blood, the haematocrit or the number of red blood cells become abnormally low. India has the highest prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia in the world. More than 320 million people in India suffer from iron deficiency anaemia of which 50 per cent are adolescent girls.