Abstract

ASSESSMENT OF ANEMIA AND ITS ASSOCIATED RISK FACTORS AMONG CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS OLD ATTENDING RWANDA MILITARY HOSPITAL

Izere Cedrick*, Lakshmi Agarwal, Thierry Habyarimana and Pacifique Ndishimye

Abstract

Anemia affects individuals of both gender and all ages. There is a need for localized and age- and context-specific studies to improve our knowledge of status of anemia and its associated risk factors in Rwandan population. The present study was done to assess anemia and its associated risk factors in children under five-year-old attending Rwanda Military Hospital. A cross-sectional study was carried out from August to September 2022 and for the diagnosis of anemia, WHO criteria for hemoglobin (Hb) threshold were used and children whose hemoglobin were less than 11.0g/dl were considered as anemic and those whose ferritin level were less than 7ng/dl were considered to have iron deficiency anemia. A total of 104 children were enrolled into the study of which 83.7% children were found to be anemic with a majority of less than 1year old children who were anemic at a level of 47% compared to those between 1 to 4years. 57.7% of children had low Iron that led to Iron deficiency anemia. Nutritional deficiency, particularly, Iron deficiency was the leading cause of anemia in the present study. In addition to nutritional deficiency, age also found to play an important role in development of anemia especially iron deficiency anemia since the body of children below 1 year old needs a lot of iron for development. Thus, interventions to minimize the high rate of anemia should be taken into consideration.

Keywords: Nutrition, Haemoglobin, Anaemia.