IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA

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Objective: To determine the association of breath holding spells with irondeficiency anemia in children. Study Design: Case control study. Place and Duration of Study:Military Hospital Rawalpindi from Jun 2012 to Dec 2012. Study Population: Sixty children ofeither gender meeting inclusion criteria aged 6 months to 5 years with 30 of breath holding spells incase group and 30 in control group as healthy children were included in the study after informedconsent from parents. Method: Complete blood picture and serum ferritin levels were performedof all children in both case and control groups. Tests were carried out at AFIP Rawalpindi. All datawas entered and analyzed using SPSS version 10. Frequencies and percentages were calculatedfor categorical (qualitative) variables like sex and children having iron deficiency anemia in casesand controls. Mean and Standard Deviation (SD) was calculated for numerical (quantitative)variable like Age. Odds ratio was calculated from the data of cases and controls. Regarding irondeficiency anemia p value <0.05 was considered as significant. Results: In this study, werecorded 43.33% (n=13) cases were between 0.6-3 years and 56.67% (n=17) were between 4-5years while 53.33% (n=16) controls were between 0.6-3 years and 46.67% (n=14) were between4-5 years. Mean±SD was calculated as 3.3+1.46 years in cases and 2.93+1.48 years in controlgroup. Male children were 60% (n=18) in patient group and 46.67% (n=14) in controls group.Female children were 40% (n=12) in patient and 53.33% (n=16) in control group respectively.Association of breath holding spells with iron deficiency anemia in children revealed as 56.67%(n=17) in cases and 3.33% (n=1) in control group while remaining 43.33% (n=13) in cases and96.67% (n=29) in control group had no findings of this association. P value was calculated as<0.0001 and Odds Ratio was 37.92 which shows a significant difference between the two groups.Conclusions: The association of breath holding spells with iron deficiency anemia in children issignificantly higher than healthy controls. So, it is recommended that every child who present withbreath holding spells should be evaluated for iron deficiency anemia