ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the frequency of factors responsible for iron deficiency anemia in children under five years of age at tertiary care Hospital.

Methodology: This cross-sectional study was done at the paediatric department of Muhammad Medical College MirpurKhas, during six months from October 2020 to March 2021. All the children with of (<5 years), presented at Paediatric OPD and of either gender were included. After taking complete clinical examination, parents were interviewed reading history of diet. After obtaining informed consent from the parents, a 3ml blood sample was taken from each case and was immediately sent to the Hospital diagnostic laboratory for the complete blood count (CBC). Anemia was defined as hemoglobin level <11g/dl. All the data was gathered via self-made study proforma and SPSS version 26 was used for the purpose of data analysis.

Results: A total of 58 children with anemia were studied, their mean age was 02.91+1.29 years, mean Hb was 7.22+1.27mg/dl. Males were 56.9% and females were 40.1%. History of Buffalo milk consumption was in 53.4% children, history of pica was in 27.6%, Caffeine containing food history was in 84.5% of the cases, age of weaning <12 months was in most of the cases and non-iron containing food consumption was also commonest. Most of the cases 55.20% had moderate anemia and 43.10% had severe anemia. The severity of childhood anemia was statically significant according to the type of milk consumption, type of food and caffeine containing food (p-<0.05), while it was statistically insignificant according to the gender and age of weaning (P->0.05).

Conclusion: As per study conclusion the Buffalo milk consumption, history of pica, caffeine containing food, age of weaning <12 months and non-iron containing food consumption were observed to be the commonest factors responsible for childhood anemia.