The Correlation of Food Consumption, Menstruation and Body Mass Index to Haemoglobin Level in Adolescent Girls of Different Economic Statuses in Cianjur Regency, West Java Province-Indonesia

Background: Anemia is a common nutritional problem found in young women. The family economic factor influence the incidence of anemia due to the low food purchasing power by the family. This research aims to analyze the food consumption, BMI and menstruation with young women's haemoglobin levels at different economic statuses. The design for this research was a cross-sectional study design applied with purposive sampling. The subjects were 122 adolescent girls taken from different economic groups. The data collection were consisted of age of respondents, pocket money, education level and occupations from respondents parents, food consumption, BMI, menstruation period and haemoglobin levels in two different economic groups. Later, data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney and Spearman tests. Conclusion: There were no differences in characteristics of the two subject groups, but there were significant differences in the consumption of vitamin B12 and vitamin C in subjects with low and high economic statuses. Body mass index values, haemoglobin levels, iron consumption, folic acid consumption, food diversity and energy density in subjects with low economic status were greater than in subjects with high economic status.