Effective Counseling An Important Strategy For Improving Knowledge And Practices About Anemia And Its Prevention Among Unmarried Adolescent Girls Of Selected Urban Health Center(UHC) Area In Vadodara-Gujarat

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  • ,IN
  • ,IN
  • ,IN

Keywords:

Adolescent girls, Anemia, prevention

Abstract

Background: Adolescents face a range of health challenges, including malnutrition and anemia. Improving home diet, especially iron rich foods, and improved utilization of available public health services to prevent anemia in unmarried adolescent girls aged (15-19 years) is need of the our which is included in the currently launched National Nutrition Mission (NNM). Objective: The major objective was to assess the impact of counseling by health functionaries on knowledge and practices about anemia and its prevention among adolescent girls of urban Vadodara. Methods: After obtaining required permission from Vadodara Mahanagar Seva Sadan, total 250 unmarried adolescent girls aged 15-19 years were enrolled from randomly selected 7 anganwadis under one Urban Health Center (UHC). Mahila Arogya Samiti (MAS) member under Nutrition Health Mission (NHM) can help as a community m obilizer/ change agent to help adolescent girls to improve their nutritional status, prevalence of anemia and optimal utilization of government program/services and preconception care. MAS members were sensitized about anemia and its aspects and provided with the counseling cards. Each MAS member was assigned 4-5 girls and were asked to counsel 2 times in a week for 3 months. Knowledge and practices about various aspects of anemia was collected using pretested semi structured questionnaire at the baseline and after the 3 months duration of counseling. (8 sessions per month) Result: It was observed that girls who got greater than 8 sessions of counselling, showed improvement in their knowledge level for anemia and its prevention. Compliance of Iron Folic Acid (IFA) improved in girls who were counselled for more than 8 sessions. Conclusion: To improve the prevalence of anemia in unmarried adolescent girls (15-19 years) of urban slum area, sensitization on causes and preventive measures of anemia should be reinforced by grassroot health and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) functionaries on regular basis.

Published

2021-06-10

How to Cite

Gandhi, H., Mehan, M., Rathi, V., & Dhannala, T. (2021). Effective Counseling An Important Strategy For Improving Knowledge And Practices About Anemia And Its Prevention Among Unmarried Adolescent Girls Of Selected Urban Health Center(UHC) Area In Vadodara-Gujarat. Journal of Indian Dietetics Association, 42(1), 35–47. Retrieved from https://informaticsjournals.com/index.php/jida/article/view/27935

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References

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