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Shooting shadows: India’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia

Despite several efforts by the Government of India, the national burden of anaemia remains high and its growing prevalence (between 2015–2016 and 2019–2021) is concerning to India’s public health system. This article reviews existing food-based and clinical strategies to mitigate the anaemia burden...

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Autores principales: Rai, Rajesh Kumar, Kumar, Sandhya S., Sen Gupta, Sourav, Parasannanavar, Devraj J., Anish, Thekkumkara Surendran Nair, Barik, Anamitra, Varshney, Rajeev Kumar, Rajkumar, Hemalatha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9876813/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35383547
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007114522000927
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author Rai, Rajesh Kumar
Kumar, Sandhya S.
Sen Gupta, Sourav
Parasannanavar, Devraj J.
Anish, Thekkumkara Surendran Nair
Barik, Anamitra
Varshney, Rajeev Kumar
Rajkumar, Hemalatha
author_facet Rai, Rajesh Kumar
Kumar, Sandhya S.
Sen Gupta, Sourav
Parasannanavar, Devraj J.
Anish, Thekkumkara Surendran Nair
Barik, Anamitra
Varshney, Rajeev Kumar
Rajkumar, Hemalatha
author_sort Rai, Rajesh Kumar
collection PubMed
description Despite several efforts by the Government of India, the national burden of anaemia remains high and its growing prevalence (between 2015–2016 and 2019–2021) is concerning to India’s public health system. This article reviews existing food-based and clinical strategies to mitigate the anaemia burden and why they are premature and insufficient. In a context where multiple anaemia control programmes are in play, this article proposes a threefold strategy for consideration. First, except the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, 2016–2018, which measured Hb concentration among children and adolescents aged 1–19 years using venous blood samples, all national surveys use capillary blood samples to determine Hb levels, which could be erroneous. The Indian government should prioritise conducting a nationwide survey for estimating the burden of anaemia and its clinical determinants for all age groups using venous blood samples. Second, without deciding the appropriate dose of Fe needed for an individual, food fortification programmes that are often compounded with layering of other micronutrients could be harmful and further research on this issue is needed. Same is true for the pharmacological intervention of Fe tablet or syrup supplementation programmes, which is given to individuals without assessing its need. In addition, there is a dire need for robust research to understand both the long-term benefit and side effects of Fe supplementation programmes. Third and final, the WHO is in process of reviewing the Hb threshold for defining anaemia, therefore the introduction of new anaemia control programmes should be restrained.
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spelling pubmed-98768132023-02-02 Shooting shadows: India’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia Rai, Rajesh Kumar Kumar, Sandhya S. Sen Gupta, Sourav Parasannanavar, Devraj J. Anish, Thekkumkara Surendran Nair Barik, Anamitra Varshney, Rajeev Kumar Rajkumar, Hemalatha Br J Nutr Horizons in Nutritional Science Despite several efforts by the Government of India, the national burden of anaemia remains high and its growing prevalence (between 2015–2016 and 2019–2021) is concerning to India’s public health system. This article reviews existing food-based and clinical strategies to mitigate the anaemia burden and why they are premature and insufficient. In a context where multiple anaemia control programmes are in play, this article proposes a threefold strategy for consideration. First, except the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, 2016–2018, which measured Hb concentration among children and adolescents aged 1–19 years using venous blood samples, all national surveys use capillary blood samples to determine Hb levels, which could be erroneous. The Indian government should prioritise conducting a nationwide survey for estimating the burden of anaemia and its clinical determinants for all age groups using venous blood samples. Second, without deciding the appropriate dose of Fe needed for an individual, food fortification programmes that are often compounded with layering of other micronutrients could be harmful and further research on this issue is needed. Same is true for the pharmacological intervention of Fe tablet or syrup supplementation programmes, which is given to individuals without assessing its need. In addition, there is a dire need for robust research to understand both the long-term benefit and side effects of Fe supplementation programmes. Third and final, the WHO is in process of reviewing the Hb threshold for defining anaemia, therefore the introduction of new anaemia control programmes should be restrained. Cambridge University Press 2023-02-14 2022-04-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9876813/ /pubmed/35383547 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007114522000927 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
spellingShingle Horizons in Nutritional Science
Rai, Rajesh Kumar
Kumar, Sandhya S.
Sen Gupta, Sourav
Parasannanavar, Devraj J.
Anish, Thekkumkara Surendran Nair
Barik, Anamitra
Varshney, Rajeev Kumar
Rajkumar, Hemalatha
Shooting shadows: India’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia
title Shooting shadows: India’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia
title_full Shooting shadows: India’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia
title_fullStr Shooting shadows: India’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia
title_full_unstemmed Shooting shadows: India’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia
title_short Shooting shadows: India’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia
title_sort shooting shadows: india’s struggle to reduce the burden of anaemia
topic Horizons in Nutritional Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9876813/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35383547
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007114522000927
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