Etiology of anemia in children aged between 6 months and 18 years

Abstract

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) where it is permissible to download, share, remix, transform, and buildup the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be used commercially without permission from the journal. Abstract Aim: Anemia is an important public health problem that concerns human and community health. In this study, we aimed to determine the etiology of anemia in different age groups and create social awareness. Methods: The study (retrospective cohort study) included anemia patients between 6 months and 18 years old who applied to the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Outpatient Clinic of KSU Medical Faculty between January 2015 and January 2018. Results: 1120 patients were included in the study. There were 873 with iron deficiency anemia, 184 with thalassemia minor, 25 with vitamin B12 deficiency anemia, 13 with autoimmune hemolytic anemia, 10 with hereditary spherocytosis and the other etiology of anemia. While 16.4% of all patients and 33.8% of patients aged 6-12 years had thalassemia minor. On the other side, 81.3% of patients aged 6 months-2 years, 74.3% of patients aged 2-6 years, 60.4% of patients aged 6-12 years and 85.0% of patients aged 12-18 years had iron-deficiency anemia. Iron deficiency anemia was common in males (60.2%) in the 2-6 years age group (P=0.002), but it was common in females (80.6%) in the 12-18 years age group (P<0.001). Conclusion: As a result of this study, it has been concluded that screening and iron supplementation should be done in societies at risk.