PREVALENCE OF ANEMIA AND ITS ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG PRESCHOOL AGED CHILDREN IN MENZ GERA MIDIR WEREDA, EASTERN AMHARA, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Anemia has been shown to be a major public health problem that affects low, middle- and high-income countries and its significant adverse outcome is not only on health but also on the social and economic development. In Ethiopia, the rate of anemia among children 6-59 months remains sever public health problem, contributing to morbidity and mortality. Objective: The main aim of this research was to determine the prevalence of anemia and associated factors among preschool aged children in Menz Gera Midir Wereda Method: A community based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 432 preschool aged children between January and May 30, 2017. A multi stage sampling procedure was applied to select the target groups. Hemocue analyzer for Haemoglobin determination; anthropometric measurements for nutritional status, structured questionnaires for sociodemographic and economic variables were used for data collection. The morphological appearance of red blood cell was assessed to determine type of anemia. Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize the data and binary Logistic regression model was used for inferencial statistics and P-value less than 0.05 considered as statistically significant. Result: The overall prevalence of anemia among preschool aged children in the study area was 28..5% and was higher in children aged 6–23 months than in those aged 24–59 months. Child underweight (AOR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.2-9.8), child wasting (AOR:3.5, 95% CI:1.07-4.38), child stunting (AOR:3.8, 95% CI:1.92-7.77), child age group 6-11 months (AOR: 5.67, 95% CI: 2.20-14.86) and 12-months(AOR:5.8, 2.3-14.7), maternal anemia (95% CI: 2.2-7.23), household food insecurity (AOR: 2.12’ 95% CI:1.09-4.12) and households headed by females(AOR: 3.24, 95% CI:1.10-9.63) were the main contributing factors for childhood anemia. Conclusion: The prevalence of anemia among the children was found to be high and associated with household food insecurity and headed by females, nutritional status, maternal anemia and nutritional status of the child. Keywords: Anemia, 6-59 months, Menz Gera Midir, Ethiopia