Prevalence of Anemia and Associated Factors Among Newly Diagnosed Patients with Solid Malignancy at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Radiotherapy Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Anemia is a common finding in cancer, which is caused by many factors. It is a
major cause of morbidity in cancer patients resulting in impaired organ function, reduced health-
related quality of life, aggressive tumor behavior, lower sensitivity to chemotherapy and
radiotherapy, even shorter survival; however, little is known about the prevalence of anemia and
associated factors among cancer patients during diagnosis in developing countries like Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess the prevalence of anemia and associated factors among newly diagnosed
patients with solid malignancy at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Radiotherapy center,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from April - May, 2014 G.C. A
total of 422 newly diagnosed patients with solid malignancy attending Radiotherapy center,
TASH were enrolled to assess anemia prevalence and associated factors. Data was coded,
entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Univariate analysis was applied to compute
descriptive statistics for many variables. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were also
used to examine the effect of selected variables on prevalence of anemia and severity of anemia
by the help of Odds ratio (OR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI). P-Value < 0.05 was taken as
statistically significant. Variables that showed statistically significant association (p<0.05) in
Bivariate analysis, were entered and analyzed by multivariate analysis.
Result: Out of 422 respondents, 285(68%) were females and 153(36%) of respondents fell into
35-49 age group with age range between 18-80 years and median age of 45. The overall
prevalence of anemia across different tumor was 23% and higher anemia prevalence was noted
in gynecology (37.7%) and colorectal carcinomas (26.7%). Majority of the anemic patients
(68%) remained untreated for anemia. The mean trigger hemoglobin for transfusion was 7.7 g/dl.
About 83.5% of anemia was mild to moderate type. Performance status (AOR = 3.344; 95% CI
1.410 – 7.927) and bleeding history (AOR = 3.628; 95% CI 1.800 – 7.314) showed statistically
significant association with occurrence of anemia with p-value < 0.05.
Conclusion: The overall prevalence of anemia across different tumor was 23 %, in which
gynecology and colorectal showed relatively higher anemia prevalence, 37.7 % and 26.7 %
respectively.
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Keywords
Anemia, Solid Malignancy