Abstract

This study compared the validity of the haemoglobin colour scale (HCS) and clinical signs in diagnosing anaemia against Sahli's haemoglobinometer method as the gold standard, and assessed the reliability of HCS. The sample comprised 129 pregnant women recruited from 6 urban health centres in Ahmedabad. The prevalence of anaemia was 69.8% by Sahli's method, 78.3% by HCS and 89.9% by clinical signs; there was no statistically significant difference between Sahli's method and HCS whereas there was between Sahlis method and clinical signs. The mean haemoglobin level by Sahli's method and HCS differed significantly. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of HCS was 83.3%, 33.3%, 74.3% and 46.4% respectively and that of clinical signs was 91.1%, 12.8%, 70.7% and 38.5% respectively. Interobserver agreement for HCS was moderate (K = 0.43). Clinical signs are better than HCS for diagnosing anaemia. HCS can be used in the field provided assessors are adequately trained.

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Authors

Bala DV, Vyas S, Shukla A, Tiwari H, Bhatt G, Gupta K

Institution

Department of Community Medicine, Smt. NHL Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, India.

Source

Eastern Mediterranean health journal = La revue de santé de la Méditerranée orientale = al-Majallah al-ṣiḥḥīyah li-sharq al-mutawassiṭ 18:7 2012 Jul pg 749-54

MeSH

Adult
Anemia
Color
Female
Hemoglobinometry
Hemoglobins
Humans
India
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications, Hematologic
Prevalence
Reproducibility of Results
Urban Population
Young Adult

Pub Type(s)

Comparative Study
Journal Article
Multicenter Study
Validation Studies

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22891524