Abstract

Objectives: There is high risk of development of anemia in adolescent girls because of increased iron demands during puberty, menstrual losses, and limited dietary iron intake. Reaction time is a measure of function of sensorimotor association and performance of an individual. This study was carried out to demonstrate the effects of Anemia on Audiovisual reaction time in adolescent female Material and method: Adolescent Females between 17-19 years of age with similar socioeconomic background were recruited from undergraduate medical students. They were all screened and categorized into two groups depending on their haemoglobin status. Students having Hb ≥12 gm/dl formed the control group i.e. Group I (n=30). All students having Hb <12 gm/dl formed group II i.e. anemic (IDA) group. Hemoglobin estimation in gm/dl was done by Sysmex FS 3000 Autoanalyser. Auditory and Visual reaction time were measured by indigenously prepared software in computer programming language Visual Basic 6.0. Results: The mean Hb levels in Group I was 12.623±0.5557 and Group II was 10±0.4347 (P<0.001). The difference in auditory and visual reaction time between two groups was found to be significant (P<0.001). Conclusion: Both ART and VRT were significantly increased (P<0.001) in anemic having hemoglobin <12gm% as compared to those having hemoglobin ≥12gm% suggesting decreased sensorimotor performance in anemics.

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