Prevalence of Anaemia in India and Strategies for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Target
K. Kalaivani, Prema Ramachandran · Revista de Fomento Social · 2018
India recognised anaemia as a major public health problem and initiated national programmes for combating anaemia in pregnant women and pre-school children in 1970.It is important to find out the coverage and impact of these programmes on prevalence of anaemia and also assess the prevalence of anaemia across all groups of population.In the last two decades, National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2, 3, 4, District Level Household Survey (DLHS) 2, 4 and Clinical Anthropometric and Biochemical component of Annual Health Survey (AHS CAB) had assessed coverage under antenatal care, anaemia control programme and estimated Hb levels in the survey population.Data from all these surveys were analysed.All surveys showed a slow improvement in coverage under antenatal care and IFA supplementation.There were no clear or consistent changes in mean Hb or in prevalence of anaemia in pre-school children, adolescent girls and pregnant women between NFHS 2, 3 and 4 at national or state level.DLHS 2 reported a higher prevalence of anaemia in all these three groups as compared to NFHS 2. Compared to DLHS 2 there was about 1 g/dL increase in mean Hb, a shift to the right in the distribution of Hb levels and a 15-20 % reduction in the prevalence of anaemia in DLHS 4 & AHS CAB.But even in 2014-15, a majority of Indians of all ages and both sexes were anaemic; the prevalence of anaemia ranged between 57.1% and 89.3%.Prevalence of anaemia in India is very high across all groups.The three-pronged strategy of increasing iron intake in all households through dietary diversification and use of iron-fortified iodized salt, IFA supplementation to vulnerable groups, the testing and timely treatment of pregnant women with anaemia will be required to accelerate the pace of reduction in the prevalence of iron-deficiency anaemia and enable the country to achieve SDG target for the reduction in anaemia.