The Practice of Iron Supplementation and Degree of Anemia for Pre-terms and Low Birth Weight Infants at High-risk Infant Clinic at TASH and GMH,Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from January 1,2019 to December 31, 2020
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Date
2021-08
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background: Eternal Iron supplementation is providing of prophylaxis’s iron for pre-terms and
low birth weight infants to supply sufficient iron for growth and development without increasing
the risk of iron overload .Preterm infants are deprived of the significant iron accretion that occurs
in the third trimester of pregnancy and have reduced iron stores at birth compared with term
infants .Iron deficiency in infancy is associated with a range of clinical and
developmentallyimportant issues including neurodevelopmental deficits, delayed maturation of
the auditory brainstem response, risk for poor cognitive, motor, social–emotional and
neurophysiological development.
Objective:The primary objective of this study is to evaluate thecurrent iron supplementation
practice and anemia for pre-terms and low birth weight infantsat Tikur Anbessa spatialized
hospital and Gandhi memorial hospital fromJanuary 1,2019 to December 31, 2020
Method:A cross sectional study was done by using patient charts review that wereevaluated at
newborn intensive care unit,wards and high-risk infant clinicof Tikur Anbessa spatialized
hospitaland gandy memorial hospital.Datawas collected through retrospective chart review
which meet the inclusion criteria by using structured check list which is prepared from previous
literature with few amendments. The data was coded, cleaned and entered in to Epi data version
4.6 and then transferred to SPSS version 26 software program for further analysis. Descriptive
summary measures were presented using Tables and Figures. The data was categorized and
summarized with descriptive statistics
Result:There were 245 pre-terms and low birth weight infants included in this study. Iron
prophylaxis supplementation practice was 53.1%, where 54.6% of supplemented infant was
females. Mean iron prophylaxis starting time was 7.4 weeks and average dose of
supplementation was1.94mg/k/day.Mean duration of iron supplementation was 5.4 months. One
hundred thirteen (86.9%) of supplemented infants were below 34 weeks GA. Ninety-four
(72.3%) of iron supplemented infants birth weight were below 1500 grams. Around 65.4 % of
infantes were started iron prophylaxes in the rage of (3 -8) weeks of post-natal age and 65.4
percent of infants supplemented 2 to 4mg/kg/day of elementary iron. According to this study
prevalence of anemia was 39.6% and 4.1 % severe anemia,20.6% moderate and 75.3% had mild
anemia where all of severe anemia was non-supplemented infants.
Conclusion:Iron prophylaxis practice was low in TASH and GMH and a great variability in the
timing of beginning, dose, and ending of iron prophylaxis which needs standardization.
prophylaxis iron supplementation practice is imperative to protect anemia in preterm and low
birth weight infants. Anemia was high for those non supplemented infants whereas preventive
iron prophylaxis prevents severe anemia significant.
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Keywords
Anemia, Iron ,Infants weight