Anemia is a major health problem in developing countries. Adolescent females are at the higher risk of developing anemia because of their greater physiological demand and combined with increase menstrual losses and poor dietary intake. Decrease hemoglobin level may lead to decrease attentiveness and low neural metabolic activity. Objectives: To observe the effect of anemia on audio and visual reaction time in adolescent females and to find out correlation between hemoglobin and reaction time. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in the department of physiology, Jhalawar medical college, Jhalawar. Adolescent females between 17-19 years of age and belonging to similar socio-economic status were recruited for the study. After hemoglobin estimation by Sysmex XN 1000 auto analyzer . Two groups, group-I (n=35) with hemoglobin level ≥12 gm/dl and group-II (n=35) with hemoglobin level <12 gm/dl were made.Visual reaction time and auditory reaction time were measured by using reaction time software in computer programming language Visual Basic 6.0. Results: Significant difference in visual reaction time (VRT) and auditory reaction time (ART) was found between two groups. The mean VRT in group I was185.7143 ± 14.4070 and in group II was 221.1429 ± 20.5471.The mean ART in group I was 152.0000 ± 14.9115 and in group II was 172.5714 ± 15.9674 .VRT and ART shows negative correlation with hemoglobin(rValue-0.619 and - 0.401 respectively), which was significant. Conclusion: Both visual reaction time and auditory reaction time were significantly increased in anemic adolescent females. Anemia may be responsible for the impairment of reaction time (sensori motor function) in females of the adolescent age group 17-19 years.

Keywords: Anemia; Reaction Time; Adolescent Females.