Prevalence of Nutritional Anaemia with Association of Body Mass Index among Karachi University students, Pakistan s

The main objective of the study was to evaluate the health of University of Karachi students (aged 19 to 21) by observing the correlation of haemoglobin level with underweight BMI.

In this study 151 students were enrolled from the Department of Biotechnology, University of Karachi, Sindh Pakistan. Blood samples were collected and Haemoglobin estimation was performed by Sahli's Haemoglobinometer. BMI of each student was calculated as per WHO criteria for South Asian.

Out of 151 students, 60 (39.7%) students had anaemia, among which 41(27.1%) were showing grade 1 anaemia and 19(12.5%) were showing grade 2 anaemia. BMI results showed that 50 (33.1%) students were underweight whereas, 19(12.5%) students were overweight and 12( 7.9%) students were obese. Correlation showed that 34 (22.5%) students had anaemia with underweight BMI.

This study concluded that anaemia with underweight BMI is more prevalent among females especially adolescent girls. This could be as they followed poor dietary habits and had some infections. This data evaluated the health status of University students on a small scale.