Rajkumari Rupabati Devi1, Ksh. Chourjit Singh2
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Anaemia is one of the most important public health problem among children. The infants, preschool children, adolescents and pregnant women are at highest risk of nutritional anaemia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of anaemia and its correlation to age, gender, haemoglobin values and magnitude of anaemia among the children of North East India.
METHODS
A cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital between October 2013 to September 2014. A total of 500 children in the age group 0 to 12 years were enrolled after obtaining written informed consent from the parents. Haemoglobin estimation was done by Sahli’s method using finger prick blood samples. As per WHO recommendation, haemoglobin values below 11 gm/dl was considered anaemic. Statistical data were analysed.
RESULTS
The overall prevalence of anaemia was 71.2% with males having 5.2%higher than females. The majority of age group comprises 1 to ≤5 years (36.0%) and 83.3% of them were anaemic. The highest value of haemoglobin estimated was 14.8 gm/dl with the lowest value of 5.2 gm/dl. The mean haemoglobin level was 10.76±1.21 gm/dl. 53.4% children were mildly anaemic. Both male and female children were affected more with mild anaemia than other types of anaemia.
CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that all the children should be screened for anaemia irrespective of age and sex as the prevalence is high. Early intervention and appropriate measures should be taken to prevent from anaemia and its associated diseases.
