Childhood anaemia levels among under-5 children in Namibia and their associated sociodemographic factors: A multivariate ordinal modelling approach.

Abstract

Anaemia is a serious global public health problem with high prevalence (>40%) in children particularly in low- and middle-income countries including Namibia with a current 46.1% prevalence rate. This study was aimed at examining the sociodemographic factors influencing the occurrence of childhood anaemia levels in Namibia. A multivariate ordinal regression model was applied to statistically identify potential sociodemographic factors associated with anaemia levels among children under-5 years old using data collected from the 2013 NDHS. The odds of having mild anaemia level was lower for sociodemographic characteristics such as mother's age, total children ever born, health insurance coverage, child's residency, child's age and main language spoken at home. The odds of having moderate anaemia level was higher for characteristics such as mother's age, place of residence, highest education level and child's diarrhoea status, while it was lower for characteristics such as age of head of household, total children ever born, health insurance coverage and sex of child. Similarly, the odds of having severe anaemia level was higher for characteristics such as region, place of residence, highest education level, number of household members, wealth index, health insurance coverage, child's residency and child's diarrhoea status, while it was lower for characteristics such as total children ever born and sex of child. It is therefore recommended that the policies and practices concerning anaemia diagnosis, treatment and prevention in the country be substantially revised by policy-makers, starting with the known prevalent causes and identified sociodemographic factors from this study.