Title

Micronutrient deficiencies and anemia among adolescents in rural south India: A game changer for public health interventions

Authors

Ravishankar Suryanarayana¹, Harish Rangareddy^2,*, M.D Shilpa³, R Bindu Madhavi⁴ & S Karthik⁵

Affiliation

¹Department of Community Medicine, Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College constituent college of Sri Devaraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research, Kolar, Karnataka, India; ²Department of Biochemistry, Haveri Institute of Medical Sciences, Haveri, Karnataka, India; ³Department of Pathology, Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College constituent college of Sri Devaraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research, Kolar, Karnataka, India; ⁴Department of Microbiology, Sri Madhusudan Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Chikkaballapur, Karnataka, India; ⁵Department of Pediatrics, Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College constituent college of Sri Devaraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research, Kolar, Karnataka, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Ravishankar Suryanarayana - E - mail: suryasankya@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9632116003
Harish Rangareddy - E - mail: harishreddy1349@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9845355050
MD Shilpa - E - mail: mdshilpa@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9620745756
R Bindu Madhavi - E - mail: bindum450@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8971977645
S Karthik - E - mail: sk.karthik.1508@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8123356546

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received March 1, 2025; Revised March 31, 2025; Accepted March 31, 2025, Published March 31, 2025

Abstract

Anemia remains a significant adolescent health concern with multifactorial causes. Hence, 253 adolescents were assessed for anemia using biochemical markers. Anemia was detected in 17.4% (95% CI: 6.3–28.5%), and it is more frequent among girls (20.16%) than boys (14.7%). It correlated with faith (p=0.025) but not with socio-economic status, caste, or parental education. Anemic participants had lower serum iron (p=0.001) and higher TIBC (p=0.025) suggesting iron deficiency. Ferritin was markedly lower in anemic boys compared to anemic girls. Elevated TIBC in 78.26% reinforced the prevalence of iron deficiency. These findings highlight the need for targeted nutritional interventions and screening programs.

Keywords

Public health, school age population, micronutrients, anemia

Citation

Suryanarayana et al. Bioinformation 21(3): 347-352 (2025)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.