Prevalence and some epidemiological factors of beta thalassaemia trait in Sindhi community of Nagpur City, India.

Objective: To study the prevalence of Beta thalassaemia trait (βTT) in Sindhi community of Nagpur City and to study association between βTT and some epidemiological factors like age at menarche in females, past history of diagnosis and treatment of anaemia and the current haemoglobin concentration. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was undertaken among 446, young, apparently healthy, unrelated (by blood) Sindhi individuals before marriage or before reproduction. Blood samples were processed for Beta thalassaemia trait (βTT) using two stage approaches. Two screening tests namely Naked Eye Single Tube Red Cell Osmotic Fragility Test (NESTROFT) and RBC indices including Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) were performed on all samples and those positive for either one or both screening tests were further investigated for HbA 2 level estimation by Haemoglobin electrophoresis on Cellulose acetate paper. HbA 2 level of > 4.5 % was taken as confirmatory of βTT. Results: The prevalence of βTT in Sindhis of Nagpur was found to be 16.81 %. No significant association was found between βTT & a delayed age at menarche, however a significantly higher number of trait carrier females had past history of diagnosis and treatment of anaemia while a significantly higher number of both male and female trait carriers had current haemoglobin concentration in anaemic range. Conclusion: The present study confirmed high prevalence of βTT in Sindhis.