Anemia among Garment Factory Workers in Bangladesh

3 1 4 Abstract: A total of 2.4 million men and women are employed in Garment industries of Bangladesh. Among them a remarkable number is lean and thin due to anemia. Contributing factors which may cause anemia are inadequate and inappropriate diet and poor absorption of iron by the body, poor nutrition and dietary knowledge and practices, poor hygiene and sanitation practices, lack of access to health services and poverty. Accordingly, the present study was aimed to find out the anemia status among garment workers. This cross sectional study was conducted on 106 garment workers of Mirpur thana under Dhaka city. Hemoglobin (Hb) was measured by Cyanmethemoglobin method. Statistical analysis was performed by appropriate univariate and multivariate techniques using SPSS windows 11.5. The age of the study subjects was 24.85 ±7.11. Among the participants 25% were underweighted, 56% were normal weighted, 17% were over weighted and the rest were obese. In consideration of sex, 11% male were anemic, whereas the percentage of female were 77%. In case of female subjects 19 % were mild anemic, 50% were moderately anemic and 8% were severely anemic. Among the male 8% were mild anemic and 3% were moderately anemic. Significant association was found between Body Mass Index (BMI) and hemoglobin level (r = 0.23, p= 0.02) of the study subjects. It can be concluded that the female subjects (77%) are more anemic than male subjects. There is a significant association between BMI and Hb level (r = 0.23, p< 0.02) of the garment workers in Bangladesh.