Anemia among Hospitalized Children - A Study Based on Occurrence, Morphology and Associated Factors

Abstract

Background: Anemia is a common health problem worldwide, affecting all age groups especially children under five years. Besides causing significant morbidity and mortality, it devastatingly affects physical growth and cognitive skills. Factors leading to anemia in developing countries are manifold. This study determined the frequency, morphological types and factors associated with anemia among hospitalized children aged 1-5 years in a tertiary care hospital.

Methods: This study was conducted among hospitalized children aged 1-5 years, at the Pediatric Department Ziauddin University Hospital, Karachi from September 2019 to March 2020. Total 333 admitted children aged 1-5 years were included. Data was accessed from hospital database. Nutritional factors and diet intake in the preceding week were recorded. The frequency, morphological types and severity of anemia were analyzed. Factors associated with anemia were compared by Chi-squared test for qualitative variables and t-test for numerical variables taking p-value ≤ 0.05 as statistically significant.

Results: Anemia was detected in 212 (63.7%) children, among which 170 (80.2%) had microcytic and 4.0 (1.9%) had macrocytic anemia. The frequency of moderate anemia was high 103 (48.6%) and severe anemia 18 (8.5%) was low. Factors significantly associated with anemia (p=0.001) were low birth weight, low maternal education, less household income, pica and non-consumption of meat/animal products.

Conclusion: More than half of the hospitalized children aged 1-5 years had Hb<11.0 g/dl. Microcytic anemia was the most common morphological type. Low birth weight, socioeconomic status, maternal education, malnutrition, pica ingestion and non-consumption of meat and dairy products were markedly associated with anemia.

Keywords: Anemia; Children; Low Birth Weight; Malnutrition; Pica.