Abstract
Background: Anemia adversely affects the children mental, physical and social development, particularly in Africa. In the early stages of life, it leads to severe negative consequences on the cognitive as well as growth and development of the children.
Objective: This study is aimed to assess the prevalence of anemia and its associated factors among under five children attending at Bule Hora General Hospital, Guji Zone, Southern Ethiopia, from October to November, 2020.
Method: A hospital based quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted at Bule Hora General Hospital, Southern Ethiopia. Convenient sampling technique was used to include 375 under-five children enrolled in the study. The pretested structure questionnaire was used to collect socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of study individuals after taking appropriate written informed consent. Then venous blood sample was collected from each child and analyzed for hemoglobin determination using Cell-DYN 1800 machine. Binary logistic regression models were used to identify associated factors of anemia. P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Result: The overall prevalence of anemia among under-five children was 13.2 % (50) at [95% CI=5.2-21.2%] of them anemic children, 11.1% (1) were had mild, 33.3% (3) moderate 55.6% (5) is severe anemia. In this study anemia was significantly associated with history of intestinal protozoa infection [AOR=2.13, 95% CI=1.35-9.270], malaria infection [AOR=5.42, 95% CI=0.307-11.034] and soil-transmitted helminths infection [AOR=6.09, 95% CI=2.047-27.54].
Conclusion: Anemia among under-five children in this study was found to be mild public health problem. It could be managed through preventing malaria infection, intestinal protozoa and soil-transmitted helminthic infection.
Keywords
Anemia, Under-five, Bule hora, General hospital, West Guji