Introduction:

Adolescence is a stage of life with many changes and greater vulnerability to health risks. Among the main health problems are nutritional disorders and, among them, deficiency anemia.

Objectives:

To determine the prevalence of anemia in female adolescents in a medical office, and to describe the clinical-epidemiological characteristics of anemic adolescents and the presence of some factors that could influence its occurrence.

Methods:

Was carried out a descriptive, observational and cross-sectional study in 76 female adolescents between 11 and 19 years old, from the Family Medical Clinic No. 16 of the “Ramón López Peña” Polyclinic, Santiago de Cuba, between March and December 2020. The sample was intentional, made up of 45 anemic adolescents. Were studied age, intensity of anemia, nutritional evaluation, toxic habits, age of menarche and characteristics of menstruation, eating habits, among others.

Results:

The prevalence of iron deficiency anemia was 59.2 %. The mean age was 14.89 years; 15.6 % of anemic adolescents were underweight and 20% were overweight or obese; 73.3 % had bad eating habits, only 24.4 % received prophylaxis with ferrous salts. In addition, heavy menstrual bleeding (22.3 %) and menarche before the age of 11 (20 %) stood out.

Conclusions:

Anemia constitutes a multifactorial problem with a high prevalence in the studied adolescents. The presence of several risk factors was evidenced, especially inadequate eating habits, malnutrition both by default and by excess, heavy menstruation and the absence of prophylaxis for the disease.

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