Prevalence of Iron Deficiency Anaemia among Adolescent Girls in Urban Area of Jammu, India

India has the highest prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia among women in the world including adolescents. The present study was conducted to find the prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia among adolescent girls in the urban area of Jammu, India. A sample of 60 adolescent girls belonging to middle income group was purposively selected from urban Paloura. The information was collected with the help of interview schedule anthropometric measurements, clinical examination and haemoglobin estimation by cyanmethaemoglobin method. Data were analyzed by using appropriate statistical method. The results revealed that the overall prevalence of iron deficiency anameia among adolescent girls was 86.6%. The prevalence of severe, moderate and mild anaemia was 3.3%, 25% and 58.3% respectively. The mean haemoglobin level was 10.27±1.1 g/dl. It was found that 88.33% of adolescent girls had normal BMI for age. It was concluded that over all iron deficiency was of high magnitude in urban girls of Jammu irrespective of their education, socio-economic status and BMI.