Abstract

Backround: Nutrition problems occurred at every stage of development. Department of Child and Adolescent Health WHO stated that there stilllack of attention on nutrition problems in adolescent stage. Jn the other hands, adolescent is a vulnerable stage because lack of micro nutrition in take, while needed a lot of nutrition due to rapid growth in this stage and menstrual cyclefor girls. Objective: To determine the potential associations between puberty status and anemia among early adolescent in iodine deficient area. Methods: This was a crossectional study, included 120 randomly selectedfirst grade of two junior high schools in the endemic areas of IDD in Temanggung, Central Java. Anemia status was determined by measuring Hemoglobin level in blood sampie and puberty status was obtained through questionnaire. Result: Among the samples, 25 samples (20.8%) were anemics. Girls had 1.55 times chance to had anemia than boys, but statistically not significant (OR: 1.55; 95%CJ; 0.61-3.93). Girls had anemia 1,55 times higher than boys but statistically not significant (OR: 1,55; 95%CJ; 0,61-3,93). Among boys and girls, puberty wasn't related to anemia (OR: 1,31; 95%CJ,' 0,53-3.25). Stratified analysis showed that the risk for having anemia among girls who had puberty was 1.5 times higher than girls who hadn't had puberty but statistically not significant (OR: 1,5; 95%CJ; 0,61-3,93). White reversely, boys who had puberty was had lower risk of having anemia, but statisticallynotsignificant(OR: 0.57/; 95%CJ; 0,135-2.422). Conclusion: Puberty status was not related to anemia in early adolescent, but girls who had puberty showed more predisposition to had anemia. Further research needed in later stage of adolescent, especially in girls in iodine endemic area to find out more about relationship between puberty and anemia. Keywords: Anemia, Puberty, Early Adolescent, Jodine Deficiency Disorders Area