Prevalence and associated factors of anemia among people with cancer in ACSH, Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: anemia is becoming a public health problem particularly among people suffering from different types of cancer. Objective: the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of anemia among people with cancer. Methods: an institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from January to June 2020 in ACSH, Tigray, Ethiopia. Medical records were systematically reviewed to get demographic and clinical characteristics of 72 study subjects. Data were entered to SPSSv25 and descriptive analysis, logistic regression, independent sample T test and ANOVA were used for analysis. Results: about 45.8% of study subjects with different types of cancer were found to have anemia. Unemployment (OR=2.167; 95%CI: 1.093, 4.294; p=0.027), rural residence (OR = 3.750; 95%CI: 1.245, 11.299; p= 0.019), advanced stages of cancer (OR = 10.771; 95%CI: 3.580, 32.405; p= 0.000), duration of cancer (OR=3.542; 95%CI: 1.289, 9.728; p=0.014) and higher (5-8) cycles of chemotherapy (OR = 3.000; 95%CI: 1.090, 8.254; p=0.033) were variables found to have statistically significant association with anemia. Conclusion: anemia is a common complication in patients with different types of cancer. Occupation, residence, duration of cancer, stage of caner, chemotherapy, and cycles of chemotherapy significantly increased the prevalence of anemia in cancer patients.