Background: Anaemia is a serious global public health problem with 42% of children less than 5 years of age and 40% of pregnant women worldwide being anaemic.1 In India 58.6% children in age group 6-59 months, 53.2% non-pregnant women between 15-49 years suffer from anaemia.2 Adolescents girls are at a greater vulnerability in developing countries exposed to dangers of greater reproductive morbidity and mortality during adulthood if not taken care at appropriate time.7 This study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of anaemia and levels of awareness regarding anaemiaamong rural and urban adolescent school girls and to find any significant differences therein. Methodology: Aschool based cross sectional study was conducted involving two schools selected by purposive sampling. 300 adolescent school going girls in 12 – 19 years age group participated in the study, 150 participants were from urban area and 150 from rural area. A pre designed, semi-structured questionnaire was used to know the awareness on anaemia among girls. Haemo-check kit was used to detect cases of anaemia and thereafter for grading into mild/moderate/severe. Data collected was processed through MS Excel and SPSS20 . Results: Prevalence of anaemia was higher amongst rural adolescent school girls 54.7% compared to urban adolescent school girls 39.4% and this difference was significant (p<0.05). Prevalence of moderate & severe anaemia was found more in rural adolescent school girls as compared to urban school girls and this difference was found significant (p<0.05). Awareness regarding anaemia, was higher among urban adolescent girls compared to the rural school girls and this difference was significant (p<0.05).

Keywords: Anaemia, Adolescent girls, Prevalence.