Abstract
Introduction: Childhood pneumonia is the leading cause of serious illness and death worldwide. In developing countries, pneumonia is the biggest single cause of childhood death under the age of 5 years. Globally, anemia is a major nutritional problem of immense public health significance. Iron deficiency anemia in children occurs most frequently between the age of 6 months and 3years, the same period of age when repeated infections occur.
 Objective: The main objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of anemia among children diagnosed with pneumonia.
 Methodology: This is a hospital based cross sectional study carried out in the Department of Paediatrics, Birat Medical College Teaching Hospital, from 15th February 2020 to 15th August 2020. This study was performed on 150 pneumonic children between 6 to 60 months of age. History regarding fever, cough and fast breathing was taken. All the data were recorded in the preformed proforma. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 16.
 Results: This study was performed on 150 pneumonic children, in which male babies (n=93; 62%) outnumbered the female babies (n=57; 38%). The majority of children were in the age group of 6 to 24 month (n=85; 56.7%). The mean hemoglobin level was 9. 49±1.39 gm/dl. The hemoglobin level less than 11 gm/dl was seen in 102 (68%) cases. Microcytic hypochromic anemia was present in 73 (71.6%) children.
 Conclusion: The prevalence of anemia among the pneumonic children of 6-60 months is 68% that is higher than the national data (52.6%) of prevalence of anemia in the same age group. While treating childhood pneumonia, checking hemoglobin on regular basis will be very useful to diagnose and manage concurrent anemia
Highlights
Childhood pneumonia is the leading cause of serious illness and death worldwide and it can be generally defined as inflamma on of the lung parenchyma.[1].In developing countries, pneumonia is the biggest single cause of childhood death under the age of 5 years
The majority of children were in the age group of 6 to 24 month (n=85; 56.7%)
The prevalence of anemia among the pneumonic children of 6-60 months is 68% that is higher than the na onal data (52.6%) of prevalence of anemia in the same age group
Summary
Childhood pneumonia is the leading cause of serious illness and death worldwide and it can be generally defined as inflamma on of the lung parenchyma.[1].In developing countries, pneumonia is the biggest single cause of childhood death under the age of 5 years. Each year there are about three million deaths, less than 5 years of age are due to pneumonia. Anemia is a major nutri onal problem of immense public health significance, affec ng persons of all ages, sex and economic group.[3] Various predisposing factors, including nutri onal, gene c, and infec ous disease factors are seen; iron deficiency causes 75% of anemia cases.[4] An iron deficiency is frequently iden fied during the 6 months to 3 years which can be due to the loss of the iron stock taken from the mother during the last trimester of pregnancy and due to the lack of iron intake due to the food diversifica on and explora on period.[5] The hemoglobin (Hb) level is the most reliable indicator in the diagnosis of anemia among individuals.[6]
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