EFFECT OF INTEGRATED STRATEGY ON IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA AMONG ADOLESCENT GIRLS.

Adolescent girls constitute one fifth of the female population if the world.The prevalence of anemia in adolescents in disproportionately high in developing countries. The prevalence of anemia estimated at 9 percent in high development countries and in countries with low development the prevalence is 43 percent especially, in population group of school age children and adolescents, the prevalence rate ranges from 29.2 percent to 79.6 percent. Anemia is an indicator of both poor health and poor nutrition. Objective: Assess the effectiveness of integrated strategies on hemoglobin and serum iron levels on iron deficiency anemic adolescent girls Methodology: The present school based interventional study was conducted among school going adolescent girls who were pursing 6th to 10th standard in selected Government Girls high schools in Kurnool city. The first intervention is the four sessions of nutrition education on iron deficiency anemic and weekly iron folic acid supplementation for 12 weeks. These two interventions were implemented on subjects simenteniously to assess the effect on improvement of serum hemoglobin levels. Pre and post strategy hemoglobin and serum and iron levels were estimated to assess the effectiveness of strategy. The collected data was analyzed by using mean, standard deviation and paid ?t? test. Results: The results depicts that before implementation of integrated strategy, 40 percent (50) were having mild anemia and 60 percent (75) were having moderate anemia. After 12 weeks of strategy implementation 47.2 percent (59) were improved to normal hemoglobin levels, 45.6 percent (57) were improved to mild anemia and only 7.2 percent (9) were having moderate anemia. Conclusion: The high prevalence of mild and moderate anemia demands appropriate emphasis on covering high risk adolescents group to improve their iron status. It is quite important to strengthen health education on the consumption of iron rich foods and proper implementation of iron folic acid intervention proramme that would increase the hemoglobin levels among the adolescents age group through prophylaxis treatment and dietary modification.