Taking a medical history and using a colour scale during clinical examination of pallor improves detection of anaemia.

We developed a colour tint scale to use as an aid in the clinical assessment of anaemia by measuring conjunctival pallor. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the accuracy and agreement among observers in detecting anaemia in three sequential phases with incremental information using clinical pallor of different anatomical sites, subsequently adding subjects' medical history for physical symptoms and the colour scale. After training in the application of these three sequential assessments, 12 primary health workers were assigned to independently examine 198 anaemic and 254 non-anaemic pregnant women while blind to the true anaemic status.