Abstract

To study the prevalence of nutritional anemia in children aged 6 to 24 months. Methodology: The current study was a prospective cross sectional analytical study. The study was conducted on 225 children aged 6 to 24 months who were attended to the OPD at Mamata Academy of Medical Sciences. Study was approved by institutional human ethics committee. Informed written consent was obtained from all the study participants and only those participants willing to sign the informed consent were included in the study. Results: In this study, the overall prevalence of anemia is about 71.1%. Out of 225 children,141 (62.7%) of children have IDA, 19 (8.4%) of children have megaloblastic anemia and the rest of the children are non-anemic. In our study, among the children with anemia, 44.3% of mothers were literates whereas 55.6% of mothers were illiterates. This is statistically significant. Among the children with anemia, 54.3% of mothers were working while 45.6% of mothers were housewives which is statistically significant. In our study, 57.5% of children were belonged to class 4 while 37.5% and 5% of children were belonged to class 3 and class 2 respectively. This is statistically significant. Prevalence of anemia in children belonging to nuclear family was 35% while it was 65% in the joint family which is statistically significant. 68.1% of anemic children have preterm birth, whereas 31.8% of children have term birth. This is statistically significant. Anemia prevalence in the children with early and delayed introduction of complementary feeds was significantly higher than the children with EBF for 6months which is statistically significant. In the present study, the factors like gender, religion and type of family diet have no significant role in the anemia prevalence. Conclusion: There was a statistically significant association is present between the factors like the education of mother, occupation of mother, socio-economic class, location, type of family, gestational age at the time of birth, exclusive breast feeding, duration of exclusive breast feeding, time for introduction of complementary feed, history of pica and nutritional anemia among children. By taking the appropriate measures, we can prevent nutritional anemia as most of these associated factors are preventable.

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