"Anemia-Tribe-specific Study and it's Sociodemographic Association in Six Dominant Tribal Adolescents of Maharashtra, India".

Background and Objective: Anemia has always been a major health burden in underdeveloped countries. Despite several nutritional anemia studies, their tribe-specific information is inadequate. The foremost objective of this study is to generate the tribe-specific information on anemia and its association with sociodemographic characters and contribution of iron metabolism. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1135 healthy adolescents (Girls 549) from six leading Scheduled Tribes (STs) of Maharashtra, India. Complete Blood Count (CBC) and serum iron with total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) was calculated using fasting venous blood collected in EDTA and Non-EDTA tubes respectively. Contribution of Iron deficiency in etiology of anemia was studied by monitoring two months of oral iron tablet supplementation. Results: It was observed that 41.3% of tribal adolescents were underweight. Prevalence of anemia was observed 41.5% in both tribal adolescents with an average Hb 11.1 ± 1.3g/dl. 21.3% girls & 37.7% boys had mild anemia; however moderate anemia was 17.4% in adolescent girls. Microcytic hypochromic anemia was observed in a large number of tribal adolescents. Hb levels improved significantly after the iron supplementation with 35% recovery with a significant reduction in TIBC along and increase in the ferritin, but without microcytosis (MCV<80fl) improvement. Interpretation and Conclusion: All tribal adolescents in this study were grossly underweight and anemia was a substantial health problem with a significant association with sociodemographic variables in tribal adolescents. Iron therapy observations suggested that Iron deficiency superimposed on the background of a-thalassaemia in tribal's. This observation should be useful to a physician practising in tribal areas for the treatment of hemoglobinopathies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]