Many students with worms suffer from anemia: Study

JAKARTA (JP): About one-third of elementary school students in the capital who have worms also suffer from anemia, a study showed on Thursday.

The study involved 2,864 students from 10 of the 3,548 elementary schools across the capital, Buhori, a researcher at the Kusuma Buana Foundation, said.

He said the prevalence of anemia among the students at the separate schools ranged between 8.6 percent and 69.1 percent, with an average of 35.1 percent.

Anemia was found in about 1,000 of the elementary school students who also had worms.

According to the study, SD Pisangan Baru 5 in East Jakarta has a 69.1 percent prevalence of anemia; SD Jatinegara 2 in East Jakarta 54.5 percent; SD Kalibata 12 in South Jakarta 52.1 percent; and SD Menteng Dalam 2 in Central Jakarta 50.9 percent.

He said the anemia was caused by the worms the students had and "poor" eating habits that resulted in a lack of nutrition.

The anemia can affect the students' ability to concentrate in school, he added.

The foundation, in cooperation with the city's education and health agencies, regularly provides food to elementary school students across the capital as a preventive measure against anemia, he said.

He explained that someone was suspected of having anemia if their hemoglobin (Hb) rate was less than 12 grams, while the study found many children whose Hb was about 10 grams.

According to Buhori, the symptoms of anemia are physical weakness and exhaustion.

He also said the results of the study showed there was a higher prevalence of anemia among girls.

The foundation also has cooperated with the city's education and health agencies since 1987 to study the prevalence and affect of worms among school-age children.

The head of the City Education Agency, Masrul Nim, said earlier this week his office found that some 612,000, or 68.8 percent of all elementary school students in Jakarta suffered from worms last year. (04)