Abstract:
INTRODUCTION -Anemia is a public health problem that affects populations in both rich and poor countries. Although anemia occurs in all age groups it is more prevalent in young children and pregnant women.
OBJECTIVE – To aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of anemia and associated factors among children aged 6-59 months visiting Tibebe Ghion Specialized Hospital.
METHODS- Hospital based cross sectional study was conducted among 341 children aged 6-59 months visiting Tibebe Ghion Specialized Hospital from from Nov.01/2021 - Feb.30/ 2022. Study participants were selected with systematic random sampling method. A pretested and structured questionnaire plus checklist was used to collect the data. The data was entered through epidata version 3.1, and analysed using SPSS Version 25 computer software. Bivariable and multi-variable logistic regression analyseis was done to identify factors associated with anemia. Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval at a p-value<0.05 was declared as statistically significant
Result: Result: A total of 341 children were enrolled in this study with the prevalence of anemia being 32% with 95% CI: 26 - 37%. Among the participants majority of them 25% hand mild anemia the rest 6.2% and 0.6% accounted moderate and severe anemia respectively. In the multivariable binary logistic regression children age, weight for height of children, maternal education, and maternal residency had significant associations. Children born to a mother who is unable to read and write were 2.6 times more likely to develop anemia than children born to a mother having university/college educational level (AOR:2.645, 95% CI:(0.917-7.630)). Multivariable analysis in this study showed that children in the age group 6-23 months were more likely to become anemic 3.8 times when compared with children in the age group of 48-59 months (AOR: 3.8, 95% CI: 1.536-9.470)
Conclusion: The study showed high prevalence of anemia among children in Tibebe Ghion Specialized Hospital. Age, maternal education had significantly associated with anemia.
Key words: Anemia, Associated factors, Children 6-59months, Prevalence,
Bivariate, Multivariale analysis