Anemia in children: A cross sectional study in a tertiary care centre

• Author Details:   
• G Bala Bhaskara Reddy ^*

Introduction: Anemia in children may be due to a single cause or multiple causes and affects the child’s health as well as their physical and cognitive development, immunity, thereby making them more sensitive to infections and mortality.
Materials and Methods: 150 children were subjected to clinical examiantions and investigations such as complete blood picture, hemoglobin and hematocrit estimation, ova and cyst identification hematological examination and biochemical reactions such as serum iron, serum ferritin, transferrin saturation was done.
Results: 42% were males and 58% were females in the present study. Most of the children (34%) were between the ages of 12-23 months, followed by 22.7% between 1 -11 months old and 18.7% were between 24–35 months. Diarrhoea was the chief complaint in 16%, 10% with respiratory tract illness and 4.7% with asthma. The nutritional status of most of the patients was normal.
Conclusion: Diet which is deficient in iron and its supplements is the main cause for anemia in the children below 5 years. Adequate education regarding the importance of health hygiene and sanitation along with importance of the proper nutrition is of utmost importance to the parents of these children and to the pregnant women.

Keywords: Anemia, children, Nutritional diet.