Prevalence of and factors associated with anemia in school children from Maceió, northeastern Brazil

Abstract

BackgroundAnemia is a major public health problem in preschool children in Alagoas, Brazil, especially in the younger population, because of a positive correlation between hemoglobin level and age. However, due to the lack of studies, it is not known how widespread this condition is among older children or how it is associated with socioeconomic status. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of and factors associated with anemia in school children from the city of Maceió, Alagoas state, Brazil. The analysis was stratified to identify any effect modification according to whether they attend public or private schools.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted using probability sampling of 1518 children (9.8 ± 0.5 years of age) attending public (n = 931) and private (n = 587) elementary schools in the municipality. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to obtain socioeconomic, demographic, anthropomorphic, hemoglobin (Hb), and dietary data. Anemia (Hb <11.5 g/dL) was the dependent variable. The measure of association used was prevalence ratio (PR) and respective CI95 %, calculated by Poisson regression with robust variance adjustment, for the crude and adjusted analyses.ResultsThe prevalence of anemia was found to be higher amongst the public school children than the private school children (10.8 % vs. 7.0 %; PR = 1.54; CI95 %: 1.1; 2.2). At the public schools, the variables that remained significantly associated with anemia after the multivariate analysis were “consumption of fruits/fruit juices < 2 portions/day” (PR = 2.19; CI95 %: 1.18; 4.06) and “male” (PR = 1.51; CI95 %: 1.001; 2.30). At the private schools, these variables were “working mother” (PR = 2.83; CI95 %: 1.23; 6.52) and “monthly school fees < R$ 188.00” (PR = 3.20; CI95 %: 1.46; 7.03).ConclusionsIn the population under study, anemia constitutes a major health problem, especially among children from public schools. Considering the associated factors and the fact that these children are in a school environment, the promotion of healthy eating habits could constitute an important approach for reducing the prevalence of anemia.

Magnitude of anemia and associated factors among children aged 6–59 months at Debre Markos referral hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: a hospital-based cross-sectional study

“…Consequently, there is a mild public health problem in the study area that should be addressed using appropriate preventive methods as anemia leads to child morbidity and mortality [ 39 ]. This finding is comparatively close to other local studies carried out at Mekelle (11%) [ 30 , 41 ], but higher than the study done at Addis Ababa (5.83%) [ 42 ]. Also this study was comparatively close to other local studies carried out in Lithuania (10.1%) [ 43 ], Serbia (10.8%) [ 44 ], Mexico (12%) [ 45 ], and Brazil (9.3%) [ 41 ].…”

Prevalence of anemia and associated factors among school children in Gondar town public primary schools, northwest Ethiopia: A school-based cross-sectional study

“…Moreover, the prevalence seen in this study was higher than those of studies conducted in countries, such as the Siauliai region of Lithuania (10.1%) [ 27 ], Serbia (10.8%) [ 34 ], Mexico (12%) [ 35 ], and Brazil (9.3%) [ 36 ]. This discrepancy might be due to the variability of risk factors across different geographic regions, plus lower socioeconomic and nutritional status of SC in this study area than in the other settings.…”

Prevalence of Anemia and its Associated Factors among Chinese 9-, 12-, and 14-Year-Old Children: Results from 2014 Chinese National Survey on Students Constitution and Health

“…In the present study, we found that girls and rural children had lower hemoglobin concentration and a higher prevalence of anemia, which was consistent with a study conducted in India [24]. One possible reason may be due to the difference in pubertal development between boys and girls, as girls lose blood during menstruation and thus have a higher requirement for hemoglobin and iron [20,25].…”