Prevalence and Associated Factors of Anemia among School-Aged-Children in Gondar Town Public Primary Schools, Gondar, northwest Ethiopia.pdf

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Anemia is a major public health problem affecting 305 million school-agedchildren globally. Anemia impairs physical growth, cognitive development and school performance of children. Determining the burden of anemia and identifying risk factors associated with the development of anemia in specific contexts can help to prevent its negative consequences. Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of anemia among school-age children attending public primary schools in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia. Methods: A School-based cross sectional study was conducted from February, 2017 to May, 2017 in Gondar town. A total of 523 school-age-children between 6-14 years old were included in the study. Mutistage systematic random sampling technique was employed to select students. Data on socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics, nutritional and dietary status of children were collected using pre-tested structured questionnaire through face-to-face interview. Anthropometric measurements were taken. Hemoglobin concentration was determined by using HemoCue 301+analyzer (Angelholm, Sweden). Stool and blood samples were collected in the school premises and examined for intestinal and hemoparasites detection, respectively. Data were coded, cleared and entered into EpiInfo version 3.5.3 and transferred to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were fitted to identify associated factors of anemia. P-value ? 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result: The overall prevalence of anemia among School-Age-Children was 15.5% (95%CI: 12.4-18.7) in this study. Low maternal/guardian education (AOR=2.304; 95%CI: 1.112-4.775), stunting (AOR=2.221; 95%CI: 1.297-3.804), severe food insecurity (AOR=5.112; 95%CI: 1.526-17.129), soil transmitted helminthic infection (AOR=7.131; 95%CI: 3.161-16.860), and untreated water consumption (AOR=4.486; 95%CI: 1.276-15.771) were found significantly associated with anemia. Conclusion: Anemia among school age children in this study was found as mild public health problem. Anemia was strongly associated with low maternal education, food insecurity, untreated water consumption, chronic nutritional problem and intestinal helminthic infection. Focused policies and strategies to wards school children should be designed to reduce anemia. Key Words: Anemia, Associated factor, Prevalence, School-Aged-Childre