Prevalence and risk factors of anemia among children 6–59 months in India: A multilevel analysis

Abstract

A B S T R A C TBackground: Early detection of anemia and subsequent measures to prevent anemia can help children grow healthily. There is considerable attention given to the impact of individual-level factors on Anaemia, but less is known about how community characteristics affect Anaemia among children. The present study was focused at estimating the prevalence and associated risk factors at individual and community level in India among children aged 6-59 months in India. Methods: Descriptive statistics and the chi-square test were applied using fourth round of National Family Health Survey dataset. Later, to explore the association of child anemia and some potential risk factors regarding hierarchy (individual and community level) of data, a multilevel logistic regression model was conducted using STATA-SE 14 software. Results: The results indicate that some aspects of the community influence the anemia risks of children. For instance, a 1% increase in the proportion of mother education in the community decreased the likelihood of anemia by 9% among children. Northeast region was the only region at lesser risk of anemia. Higher community level ethnic and religious homogeneity is associated with decreased odds of anemia among children. Children aged 12-35 months, girl child, children having diarrhoea, mothers of age group 15-24, high parity and low exposure to mass-media were the high risk individual factors of anemia among children. Conclusions: Overall, the present study indicated the requirement to include community-level factors beyond the individual level factors by policymakers to eradicate the burden of anemia in the country and the high prevalence states.

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