Parents’ Knowledge and Practice of Iron Therapy for Anemic Infants in Primary Health Care in Bahrain

Abstract

Background: Anemia in children aged less than five years is a common medical problem worldwide. Iron deficiency anemia is the most prevalent anemia in infants and has been shown to be a public health problem. Many studies have been conducted on anemia among infants but the scope of the conducted studies was focused on the prevalence of anemia with less emphasis on the knowledge and parental practice of anemia and its treatment. Providing infants with iron supplements and simultaneously ensuring their compliance has shown an improvement in hemoglobin levels, along with a significant reduction in the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia (IDA). Objective:To explore the level of parental knowledge and practice towards iron syrup.Methods: A Cross-sectional study was carried out from 21 st June to 2 nd July, 2015 in ten Primary Health Care centers in Bahrain. During the study period, a phone survey was conducted using a self-constructed questionnaire. The response rate was 98%. Results:In this study, the prevalence of anemia in infants is 45%. 58.4% of parents did not give the offered iron for their infants or stopped it within the first week of use. Overall, around 70% of parents correctly answered half or more of the knowledge questions regarding iron syrup side effects but only 32.5% of parents correctly answered half or more of the questions regarding IDA complications. Conclusion:Anemia is prevalent among 9 months old infants with considerable gaps in knowledge and practices of parents.

Comparative Study of Children with/without Iron Deficiency Anemia Based on Parents’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practice in Basra/Al-Madinah City

“…Our study showed that the prevalence of anemia in infants aged 9 months who took part in this research was 46.7%, which is in concordance with previous statistics and local studies Al-jamri A. 5 Residence distribution of the sample mostly lives in rural, because the hospital locating in rural and most of attended to hospital from this area. Show the high affected with a decrease in was 28 (93.3) from the total study, this accepted with Saaka M. and Gebreweld A.…”

“…Knowledge: Show in our results knowledge answers near half study sample with their children previously diagnose with IDA was 16 (53) this results accepted with Al-jamri A. 5 32.5% of parents correctly answered half or more of the questions regarding IDA complications.…”

Conocimiento sobre prevención de anemia en madres de niños menores de 2 años de un establecimiento hospitalario en Lima Norte

“…La anemia por falta de hierro es el tipo de anemia más común en los lactantes y es señalado como un problema sanitario latente. Ante ello, se han realizado muchas investigaciones sobre anemia en menores, donde se observa que el alcance de dichos estudios se centra en la prevalencia de la enfermedad, dándole poco énfasis en el conocimiento y la práctica de los padres sobre esta enfermedad y su prevención (4) .…”