Anemia incidence and influencing factors among children aged 0-6 years in Shannan city, Xizang Autonomous Region

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and influencing factors of anemia children aged 0-6 years in Shannan city, Xizang Autonomous Region. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed to measure hemoglobin of 12 405 children aged 0-6 years in 12 counties (districts) of Shannan city, Xizang Autonomous Region and basic information including gender, age, ethnicity, address, local altitude, urban area, agricultural and pastoral areas, etc were collected. According to the altitude of the surveyed children's place of residence, anemia in children under the plain standard and the prevalence of anemia after adjusting for altitude were reported, and the influencing factors of anemia in these children were analyzed by Logistic regression methods. Results: Among the 12 405 children, 6 383 (51.46%) were males, 6 022 (48.54%) were females, 462 (3.72%) were newborns, 68 (0.55%) were 1 month old children, 153 (1.23%) were 4-<6 months old children, and 11 722 (94.49%) were 6 months to 6 years old children. The prevalence of anemia in children aged 0-6 years in Shannan city before altitude correction was 15.50%(1 923/12 405), and it was 57.84% (7 175/12 405) after altitude correction. The hemoglobin level in the children was (131±20) g/L. Univariate analysis showed that the anemia rate of males was higher than that of females (59.17% (3 777/6 383) vs.56.43% (3 398/6 022), P<0.05), the anemia rate of Tibetan children was higher than that of children of other ethnic groups (58.21% (6 992/12 011) vs.46.45% (183/394), P<0.05), the anemia rate of children in agricultural and pastoral areas was higher than that of urban children (58.75% (6 212/10 574) vs.(52.59% 963/1 831), P<0.05), and the anemia rate of children in higher-altitude areas was higher than that of children in high-altitude areas (67.98% (2 773/4 079) vs.52.87% (4 402/8 326), P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that girls (OR=0.89, 95%CI 0.83-0.96), children of other ethnic groups (OR=0.72, 95%CI 0.58-0.89), children aged 4-<6 months (OR=0.40, 95%CI 0.24-0.67) and children aged 6 months to 6 years (OR=0.59, 95%CI 0.43-0.82) were protective factors, and children who lived in agricultural and pastoral areas (OR=1.15, 95%CI 1.04-1.28) and children living at altitudes higher than 4 000 m areas (OR=1.88, 95%CI 1.73-2.04) were independent risk factors for the occurrence of anemia. Conclusions: The prevalence of anemia in children aged 0-6 years in Shannan city was still relatively high. It might be affected by factors such as sex, ethnicity, age of the children, place of residence and altitude where the children lived.