Sustainable effect of Ayurvedic formulations in the treatment of nutritional anemia in adolescent students.

Objectives: Anemia is a serious health problem in Indian school children. High prevalence of anemia has been reported in nonpregnant adolescent girls. An investigation was initiated to study the effect of two non-iron-containing Ayurvedic preparations-Sootshekhar Rasa plus Sitopaladi Churna-in improving nutritional anemia among adolescent students.

Design: This was a single-blinded, randomized, controlled study.

Setting: The study setting was Dehradun district, North India.

Subjects: The subjects comprised a total of 1646 boys and girls, aged 11-18 years, attending school in Dehradun district.

Intervention: As per World Health Organization guidelines, a total of 1322 adolescent anemic students were randomly divided into 5 groups. Students of group I (control) received starch. Group II, III, and IV students received Sootshekhar Rasa (SR) plus Sitopaladi Churna (SC) in various combinations, namely, SR 125 mg + SC 500 mg daily, SR 250 mg + SC 400 mg daily, and SR 250 mg + SC 400 mg weekly, respectively. Group V student were given iron and folic acid tablet. All the students received treatment for 90 days and were followed up for the next 180 days.

Outcome Measure: The outcome measure was to evaluate the effect of Sootshekhar Rasa plus Sitopaladi Churna in improving nutritional anemia.

Results: The overall prevalence of anemia was found to be 81.3%. At baseline, the mean hemoglobin (Hb) was 97.4 +/- 13.2 g/L and ranged from 96.4 +/- 0.8 g/L to 98.3 +/- 0.8 g/L in various groups. At end of follow-up (day 270), a significant increase in Hb levels from baseline was observed in all treatment groups; however, the Hb gain (6.9 +/- 0.6 g/L) in group III and group V (3.64 +/- 0.56 g/L) differed significantly from the control group. A total of 155 students dropped out of the study due to various reasons not related to treatment. No adverse side-effect of Ayurvedic medication was noted in any student.

Conclusions: We conclude that a daily dose of Sootshekhar Rasa (250 mg) plus Sitopaladi Churna (400 mg) can produce sustainable improvement of nutritional anemia in adolescent students.