Impact of nutrition education and supplementation on haematologic al profile of anaemic young women

Sixty young anaemic women (18–22 years) were selected to study the impact of nutrition intervention on their haematological profile. The subjects were selected and divided into two groups, 30 each on the basis of haemoglobin level and food habits, viz. anaemic vegetarian (AV) and anaemic non-vegetarian (ANV). The subjects were provided supplements containing 150 mg of dried ferrous sulphate and 500 mg of folic acid along with 100 mg of vitamin C, and nutrition education at weekly intervals for 3 months. After intervention, a significant increase was observed in energy (p £ 0.01), iron (p £ 0.01) and folic acid (p £ 0.05) intake while a non-significant increase was observed in ascorbic acid intake of subjects in both the groups. The mean haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV) and red blood cell (RBC) count increased significantly (p £ 0.01) from 10.2 g/dl, 31.6 per cent and 3.5 million/m³ to 11.3 g/dl, 34.6 per cent and 3.8 million/m³, respectively in group AV, and from 10.4 g/dl, 32.5 per cent and 3.6 million/m³ to 11.8 g/dl, 37.3 per cent and 4.0 million/m³, respectively in group ANY. The increase in Hb, PCV and RBC was comparatively higher by 2.7, 6.09 and 2.54 per cent, respectively in group ANV. A significant improvement was also observed in nutrition knowledge of the subjects after the intervention.