Abstract

Aims: To correlate Age, Type, Rbc Indices in deciding the severity of anaemia in adult females in tertiory care hospital.

Settings and designs: A hospital based cross sectional study was done at our tertiary care centre in central clinical laboratory of Dr. D.Y. PATIL Medical College & Hospital and Research Centre, Pimpri, Pune among 1000 adult females to evaluate prevalence of spectrum of anaemia. Considering a confidence level of 95% and confidence interval of 3.1 the number of patients in our study to achieve statistical significance is 999. The Survey System ignores the population size when it is "large" or unknown. Population size is only likely to be a factor when you work with a relatively small and known group of people (e.g., the members of an association). Hence a sample size of 1000 was considered adequate for our study.

Results: Majority of the females (42.44%) were in the age group of 26-35 years followed by 31.9% in the age group of 18-25 years, 19.2% in the age group of 36-45 years, 4.9% in the age group of 46-55 years and 1.6% in the age group of 56-65 years. 410 (41%) females had mild anemia while 440 (44%) and 150 (15%) females had moderate and severe anemia.

The Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) of females with mild anemia was 70.94 ± 1.35 fl while the mean MCV of females with moderate and severe anemia was 66.29 ± 2.43 fl and 60.82 ± 1.77 fl respectively. There was significant decrease in mean corpuscular volume (MCV) with increase in severity of anemia as per ANOVA test (p<0.05).

The mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) of females with mild anemia was 25.74 ± 2.38 pg while the mean MCH of females with moderate and severe anemia was 21.16 ± 2.07 pg and 17.84 ± 1.96 pg respectively. There was significant decrease in mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) with increase in severity of anemia as per ANOVA test (p<0.05).

The mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) of females with mild anemia was 32.76 ± 3.14 while the mean MCHC of females with moderate and severe anemia was 29.55 ± 2.83 and 26.91 ± 2.34 respectively. There was significant decrease in mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) with increase in severity of anemia as per ANOVA test (p<0.05).

The mean red cell distribution width (RDW) of females with mild anemia was 17.72 ± 0.87% while the mean RDW of females with moderate and severe anemia was 18.26 ± 1.18% and 20.05 ± 1.37% respectively. There was increase in red cell distribution width (RDW) with increase in severity of anemia but the increase was statistically not significant as per ANOVA test (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Iron deficiency anemia is increasing in females, especially in reproductive age group of developing countries. The hematological parameters can aid in early recognition of type and cause of anemia and thereby improve the outcome. The study confirms that iron deficiency anemia is the most common cause of anemia in pregnancy and is a major health problem in developing and developed countries. Early detection, treatment and prevention of anemia can improve maternal as well as child outcome.

Keywords: Anaemia; Mcv; Mch; Mchc; Rdw