A Retrospective Study to Estimate the Prevalence of Anemia and Associated Factors among First Year MBBS Students of Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha, Hisar.

Introduction: Anemia is a most common public health problem affecting around 1.9 billion population of the world. It is a severe public health problem in India. Medical students are vulnerable to develop anemia due to irregular eating habits due to hectic study schedule. Anemia among this age group has significant health consequences resulting in poor cognition, decreased attention span and memory affecting the performance, depressed immunity, repeated infections, increased fatigue, and shortness of breath, dizziness, blurred vision, low endurance and irregular menstruation. Material and Methods: This study is conducted among 100 students of both gender taking admission in MBBS first year at MAMC, Agroha. Hemoglobin values and other relevant details of the students were taken from academic section submitted at time of admission. World Health Organization criteria were taken to determine the severity of anemia. Modified B.G. Prasad scale was used to assess the socioeconomic status of the family. Data was first entered into MS excel sheet and then was exported to SPSS version 20.0 for appropriate analysis. Results: Prevalence of anemia came out to be 54% among study subjects. Difference between the mean levels of hemoglobin across the genders came out be statistically significant (P=<0.001). Conclusion: Prevalence of anemia is high among the study subjects with more prevalence among females study subjects. There is a need to accelerate efforts for achieving control of anemia by strengthening multi-sectoral partnership involving government departments, academic institutions, bilateral agencies and food industry.