Prevalence of Anaemia and Its Association with Iron Status Among Female Dental Students

Introduction: Anaemia continues to be a major health problem world wide , particularly among females of reproductive age in developed and developing countries. It is a condition that affects an estimated 2.36 billion individuals globally. Anaemia, even when mild to moderate, affects the sense of well-being resulting in fatigue, stress, and impair cognitive and physical development along with an increased mortality rate. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of anaemia and its association with Iron status among female dental students Methods: A cross sectional institution based study was carried out among dental student hostellers.Complete blood cell count were estimated using automated hematology analyzer serum iron and iron binding capacity by colorimetric method and ferritin estimation by automated chemiluminescence system . Transferrin saturation was calculated using the data. Results: The prevalence of anaemia was found to be 48% .The prevalence of IDA and ID was 28%, and 20% respectively .Among the anaemic subjects 28.8 % were having microcytic hypochromic anaemia, 8 % Dimorphic anaemia, 4.4% had normocytic anaemia showing no significant relation with age, BMI and waist hip ratio. Conclusions: Lifestyle modifications with dietary suplimentation of iron and folic acid rich food as well as iron supplements are needed for IDA subjects . Awareness campaign regarding IDA and iron deficiency are inevitable among the student population.