Prevalence of Iron Deficiency Anemia among Under Five Years Children in a Tertiary Health Care Center of Nepal

Abstract

Background
Globally 39.8% children under five years old are anemic, with prevalence of childhood anemia in Nepal reported to be 52.7% by 2016. The aim of this study is to analyze the prevalence of anemia among pediatric age group between 2 months to 60 months to provide some insight for prevention of anemia among children.

Methods
This is a prospective observational cross-sectional study conducted over the period of 15^st March 2019 to 14^th August 2019 at Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital which included children presenting to pediatric department between ages 2 to 60 months. Children with known history of hemolytic disorders, malignancies and chronic diseases were excluded from the study. Hemoglobin level and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) was obtained. Descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage and standard deviation were calculated.

Results
Total 500 children selected randomly for the study, 234 (46.8%) children were non-anemic while mild anemia was seen in 86 (17.2%), moderate anemia in 155 (31.0%) and severe anemia in 25(5.0%) children. Mean hemoglobin was 10.2 gm/dl with standard deviation of 1.847. Among male 45.6% were anemic whereas 42.7%female were anemic. Children of age group 2 to 12 months had higher percentage of anemia with 76.2% being anemic.  Among 266 anemic children 219 (82.3%) had MCV below the normal range.

Conclusion
Our study shows the higher prevalence of anemia in children between 2 to 60 months of age. Microcytic anemia was more common which represents higher prevalence of iron deficiency anemia among anemic children.