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Abstract
BackgroundAnemia is one of the major public health problems affecting more than half of school-age children in developing countries. Anemia among children has been conclusively seen to delay psychomotor development, poor cognitive performance, impaired immunity and decrease working capacity. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and associated factors of anemia among school-age children in Filtu Town, Somali region, Southeast Ethiopia.MethodsA community based cross-sectional study was conducted from July to August, 2013 in Filtu Town. A total of 355 school-age children between 5–15 years old were included in the study. Socio-demographic data were obtained from each participant using structured questionnaire. Hemoglobin concentration was determined by HemoCue 201+ photometer (HemoCue, Angelholm, Sweden) analyzer. Hemoglobin values below 11.5 g/dl and 12 g/dl were considered as anemic for age ranges of 5–11 and 12–15 years, respectively. Anthropometric data were taken from each study participant. Peripheral blood film and stool examination were done for hemoparasite and intestinal parasite screening, respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0.ResultsOver all, prevalence of anemia was found to be 23.66%. The vast majority (73.81%) of the anemic children had mild anemia. Moderate and severe anemia accounted for 25% and 1.19% of the anemic children, respectively. Being from a family with low income (AOR = 9.44, 95% CI: 2.88, 30.99), stunted (AOR = 5.50, 95% CI: 2.83, 10.72), underweight (AOR = 2.07, 95% CI: 1.06, 4.05) and having intestinal parasite infection (AOR = 2.99, 95% CI: 1.05, 8.46) were identified as associated factors for anemia.ConclusionAnemia is a moderate public health problem in school-age children for the study area. Interventions targeting nutritional deficiencies and parasitic infections are recommended.
Highlights
Anemia is one of the major public health problems affecting more than half of school-age children in developing countries
The highest prevalence of anemia exists in the developing world where its causes are multi-factorial
Anemia in children may resulted from poor bioavailability of iron, infections like intestinal parasites, malaria and tuberculosis (TB)
Summary
Anemia is one of the major public health problems affecting more than half of school-age children in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and associated factors of anemia among school-age children in Filtu Town, Somali region, Southeast Ethiopia. Anemia is a public health problem in developing countries among school-age children. The highest prevalence of anemia exists in the developing world where its causes are multi-factorial. The main risk factors for iron deficiency among young children in developing countries are malnutrition (low intake) and high requirement of iron during child growth. Due to the multifactorial conditions, complexity of risk factors of anemia and potential interactions among them, a single strategy to control anemia in developing countries may have little success. An integrated strategy for anemia control and prevention is required [1,6,7,8,9,10,11]
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