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Status of Anemia among Undergraduate Students of a Medical College of Central Nepal

INTRODUCTION Anemia is significant public health problem and is associated with poor health conditions. It is a clinical state in which the quantity or quality of circulating red blood cells, hemoglobin or hematocrit level is reduced below the reference range for healthy individuals of the same age, sex, and race, under similar environmental conditions. The complete blood count (CBC) with red cell indices offers clue to diagnosis. Symptoms of anemia may vary from none, mild fatigue to weakness and reduced cognitive performance. The ever demanding medical curriculum exhausts students forcing them skip meals, attend long classes, live sedentary life making them vulnerable to several medical conditions including anemia. Also, undergraduate students fall under anemia vulnerable age-group. Independent studies in different medical colleges of Nepal have reported the prevalence of anemia among undergraduate students at around 30%. The present study aims at estimating hemoglobin levels to find the prevalence of anemia among undergraduate medical students. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate health-science students of Chitwan Medical College from March 2019 to August 2019 after obtaining ethical approval from IRC-CMC. (Ref: CMC-IRC/075/076-125) All 391 undergraduate health science students in 1 and 2 year were recruited from a pool of “School of Medicine”, “School of Dental Surgery”, “School of Nursing” and “School of Allied Sciences”. Students with systemic illnesses, bleeding disorders, and on medications that interfered with red blood cell production, iron and folic acid metabolism were excluded from the study. An informed consent was obtained from all the students for participation in the study.