Correlation of Hemoglobin Levels with Nutritional Status in Adolescent Girls: A Health Promotion Perspective

Abstract

Background: Women during pregnancy, childbearing years, and adolescence are susceptible to anemia. The prevalence of anemia in adolescents in Indonesia reached 32 percent in 2018. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between nutritional status and the incidence of anemia in adolescent girls. Method: This study is an analytical survey with a cross-sectional design. The population in this study was female students in Padang City. The instrument used to measure hemoglobin was a digital hemoglobin measurement device. The nutritional status in this study used the measurement of the nutritional status of adolescents with the indicator of BMI according to age. Correlative analytical test with ordinal scale data used Kendall's tau testing. Results: Based on the results of this study, it was known that most of the adolescents (71.9%) had normal nutritional status Most of the adolescent girls (87.5%) had normal hemoglobin levels, and as many as 12.5 percent adolescent girls had anemia and were not menstruating. There was no correlation between nutritional status (BMI/age) and hemoglobin levels. Nutritional status is not a cause of anemia in adolescent girls. It is necessary to investigate the prevalence of anemia in adolescent girls during menstruation as a comparison.