Magnitude of Anemia and Associated Factors in Children Aged 6-59 Months at Keranyo Health Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2021-02
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background: Anemia impairs physical capacity and work performance in all age groups. Inchildren, anemia affects cognitive and motor development because of the need for adequateoxygen carrying capacity during the critical first few years of life when mental and physicalgrowth are occurring at their fastest. In Ethiopia, Anemia among children aged 6-59 monthschildren categorized as severe public health problem. Regular monitoring of the magnitudeanemia and its predicting factors is helpful for appropriate intervention.
Objective: To assess the magnitude of anemia and associated factors in children aged 6-59months at Keranyo health center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopiafrom January 01 to February 30, 2020.
Method: A cross sectional health facility based study wasconducted among 427 children aged 6to 59 months. Convenient sampling technique was used to include the participants. Pretested andstructured questionnaire was used to collect socioeconomic and demographic characteristics ofthe family and child. Data on nutritional status and capillary blood sample was collected fromeach child. Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios with thecorresponding 95% confidence intervals.P-values less than 0.05 was also used to declarestatistical significance.
Result: Of the total 427 children, 210 (49.2%) were males. The overall prevalence of anemiaamong children aged 6-59 months was 177(41.5%) (95% CI: 36.8% - 45.9%). Of the anemicunder-five children, 14(3.3%) had mild, 149(34.9%) moderate and 14(3.3%) had severe anemia.Children whose maternal education is below elementary((AOR=3.82, 95% CI = (1.66, 8.77)),children who had fever in the last 2 weeks (AOR=2.13; 95% CI: (1.33, 3.42)), who consumed tea(AOR=2.17; 95% CI: (1.20, 3.93)) and with mothers who was not supplemented with iron duringtheir last pregnancy (AOR=3.02; 95% CI: (1.40-6.55)) were more likely to become anemic.
Conclusion: This study confirmed thatthemagnitude of anemia in children aged 6-59 months inKeranyo health centeris in the severe public health category. Educational and occupational statusof the mother, child history of fever in the last two weeks, child tea consumption and maternaliron supplementation during pregnancy were factors associated with anemia in those children (659months).Therefore, strengthening awareness and bringingbehavioural change in order toincrease the knowledge of reproductive women about anemia is warranted.
Description
Keywords
Anemia