Prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls (10–19 years) in India: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Anaemia is a serious public health problem. It is the second-commonest contributing factor to years lost by adolescents to disability and death. Targeting adolescent girls will allow a window of opportunity to correct their nutritional health and improve their obstetric outcomes. Studies in India have reported varying prevalence rates of anaemia among adolescent girls. Hence, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis of community-based studies to obtain a comprehensive pooled estimate of the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls in India. Methods We did a systematic electronic search in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Google scholar to retrieve community-based studies that reported the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls (10–19 years) in India, without any date or language restriction. To estimate the pooled prevalence and heterogeneity, the random-effects model and I2 statistical methods were used. We did subgroup analyses based on geographical region, study setting, method used to measure haemoglobin concentration, and year of publication. Results We included 35 studies in this meta-analysis comprising 152 640 participants. The pooled prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls was 65.7% (95% CI 59.3%– 71.9%). There was significant heterogeneity between the studies (I2 99.6%; p<0.001). Conclusion There is a high prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls in India. While all regions of the country have a high prevalence, tribal areas need special attention. Targeted actions need to focus on the identification of determinants of anaemia apart from iron supplementation.