Interstate and Intrastate Differences in the Prevalence of Anaemia in Reproductive Age Women - a Study of Possible Contributing Factors

Selection of Sample

The sample of households and villages for the present study in each state will be drawn as a sub-sample of households and villages investigated in the NFHS II Survey (National Family Health Survey). The sample selection will be done in two stages. The selected villages will be stratified into tertiles on the basis of prevalence of anemia as reported by NFHS II. A total of 20 villages will be selected from the different tertiles , the number of villages from each tertile being proportional to the tertile/size. From each of the 20 villages, a simple random sample of 15 households will be selected, making a total of 300 households in each state.

Methodology

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The Hb estimations will be done on all reproductive age women, including the pregnant women, in the selected households using the Cyanmethemoglobin method using the filter paper technique. On every 5th subject, blood samples will be taken in duplicate and on every 10th subject, the second sample will be sent to the central reference laboratory (NIN, Hyderabad) for quality check.

Dietary Intake Data

Habitual dietary intake data, with a focus on pregnant women and children, will be obtained using the food frequency method from each selected household. In addition, individual dietary intakes of every member of the household will be obtained using the 24 hour dietary recall which would facilitate the estimation of intra household food distribution patterns. The dietary intakes of each individual will be expressed as percentage of the Indian RDA. The dietary intake data will be repeated on 5 per cent of the households through out the study period independently by the PIs in each state to maintain quality checks.