Abstract

SOUZA, Orivaldo Florencio de et al. Prevalence and associated factors to anaemia in children. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2012, vol.22, n.3, pp. 307-313. ISSN 0104-1282.

OBJECTIVES: to analyse the prevalence and factors associated with anaemia in children from Rio Branco, Acre. METHODS: the study included 610 children between 6 and 59 months old. A questionnaire was issued with questions on characteristics of the mother, feeding practices and antecedent morbidity. The anaemia diagnosis was based on haemoglobin levels at 110 g/l. Multiple Poisson regression was used to analyse the associated factors with variables entered into hierarchical blocks. RESULTS: the anaemia prevalence was 51.8%. The factors associated with anaemia were the following: age below 24 months (prevalence ratio [PR]: 1.51 and 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.17 to 1.95); years of formal education for the mother between 5-8 years (PR: 1.34 and 95% CI: 1.13 to 1.58) and less than or equal to 4 years (PR: 1.32 and 95% CI: 1.05 to 1.65); anaemia in the mother (PR: 1.28 and 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.51); and consumption frequency less than once a week for meats (PR: 1.35 and 95% CI: 1.03 to 1.77) and fruits (PR: 1.28 and 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.52). CONCLUSIONS: the prevalence of anaemia among children in Rio Branco is a serious public health problem. The results highlight the need to strengthen policies on family health care and provide mothers with counselling on feeding practices.

Keywords : anemia; child health; nutritional status; cross-sectional studies; epidemiologic factors; prevalence.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in English     · English ( pdf ) | Portuguese ( pdf )