Background: Anaemia is considered as the most prevalent nutritional deficiency globally effecting all age group, however overcrowding and poor environmental health conditions of urban slums make the children vulnerable to infections which further compromises the health status.
Objective: To assess the prevalence of anaemia among under-five children in urban slums.
Methodology: Community based analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in urban slums amongst under-five children. A house to house survey was conducted, Pre-informed consent was taken from mother’s for haemoglobin estimation of their child. Blood sample from each child was collected and estimated by using Hemocue HB 201 analyzer.
Results: A total of 381 children were studied, however, due to noncompliance only 354 children were included in this study for haemoglobin estimation. Prevalence of anaemia was found to be 72.5%. More than half of the females (53.3%) were found to be anaemic in comparison to males. It was observed that anaemia was seen maximum in the age group of 6 to 12 months (79.5%). According to the severity of anaemia 19.0% children were found to be mildly anaemic and 50.2% moderately and 3.4% were severely anaemic.
Conclusions: The problem of Anaemia, especially mild and moderate Anaemia is more common in younger age. Common reasons are improper feeding practices, incompleteness of weaning practices, exclusive breastfeeding till late age or top feeding with predominantly diluted feeds, worm infestation improper washing of hands before eating increases the risk of undernutrition and anaemia.
Impact Factor
2022: 6.012
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