Prevalence and Severity of Anaemia Among Hospitalised Children Aged 6-59 Months

Abstract

BACKGROUNDAnaemia is ubiquitous and has a global prevalence, more so in developing countries. Globally, anaemia affects 1.62 billion people, which corresponds to 24.8% of the population and the highest prevalence is noted in preschool-age children (47.4%). Anaemia is a major health problem in India. Iron deficiency, the most common cause for anaemia can be effectively prevented and in case already developed, can be easily treated by simple measures. Hence, there is a dire necessity for comprehensive studies to determine the prevalence of anaemia in children. MATERIALS AND METHODSThis is a retrospective descriptive study conducted at Institute of Child Health, Government Medical College, Kottayam. Data pertaining to gender, age, weight, serum haemoglobin level, diagnosis that led to admission and duration of hospitalisation were collected. The WHO criteria (haemoglobin < 11 g/dL) were used to diagnose anaemia. Chi-square test was used to find the association between grades of anaemia and various study parameters. RESULTSPrevalence of anaemia was 56.1% in the study group with 28.7%, 25.3% and 2.1% as mild, moderate and severe anaemia respectively. Proportion of anaemic cases decreased with age, varying from 71.3% in children between 6 and 12 months to 31.5% in children >36 months. CONCLUSIONA large proportion of hospitalised children less than 5 years of age were found anaemic. Among all the anaemic children, iron deficiency anaemia was high and it should be considered as a public health problem.

Study of anemia in hospitalised infants with special reference to its risk factors

“…In the present study, majority (91.6%) of the anemic infants had mild to moderate anemia and 8.4% had severe anemia. In a study in children between 6-59 months of age by Verghese et al, maximum occurrence of severe anemia was observed in the 6-12 months age group [8].…”