Prevalence of Anemia and Associated Factors among Children Attended at Jimma Medical Center, South West Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Anemia is major health problem throughout the world. It is associated with serious consequences in- cluding growth retardation, impaired motor and cognitive development, and increased morbidity and mortality. Esti- mates suggest that 47.4% of children are anemic globally. The magnitude of the problem in developing countries is high, since they are more exposed to various health and socioeconomic problems which are directly or indirectly re- lated with anemia. Objective: To assess the prevalence of anemia and asso- ciated factors among Children attended at Jimma Medical Center, South West Ethiopia. Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study de- sign was employed from April 15 to 30/2016. Data was col- lected by face to face interviews by trained data collectors using pretested structured questionnaire. Descriptive statis- tics was used to analyze the data. Chi-square was used to identify the association between dependent and indepen- dent variables with p-value < 0.05. Result: From the total of 212 children involved in the study, 96 (45.3) were males and 116 (54.7%) were females with the mean age of the of 6 years. The overall prevalence of anemia was 95 (44.8%) of which 44 (20.7%) males and 51 (24.1%) females. The mean hematocrit was 29.3%. F