Determinants of Anemia among Preschool Children in Rural, Western Kenya

Eric M. Foote, Kevin M. Sullivan, Laird J. Ruth, Jared Oremo, Ibrahim Sadumah,
Thomas N. Williams, and Parminder S. Suchdev*
Emory University School of Medicine, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta,
Georgia; Nutrition Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Safe Water and AIDS Project, Kisumu, Kenya;
and Centre for Geographic Medicine Research-Coast, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kilifi, Kenya; Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford, United Kingdom.

 Although anemia in preschool children is most often attributed to iron deficiency, other nutritional,
infectious, and genetic contributors are rarely concurrently measured. In a population-based, cross-sectional survey of 858 children 6–35 months of age in western Kenya, we measured hemoglobin, malaria, inflammation, sickle cell, a-thalassemia, iron deficiency, vitamin A deficiency, anthropometry, and socio-demographic characteristics. Anemia (Hb < 11 g/dL) and severe anemia (Hb < 7 g/dL) prevalence ratios (PRs) for each exposure were determined using multivariable modeling. Anemia (71.8%) and severe anemia (8.4%) were common. Characteristics most strongly associated with anemia were malaria (PR: 1.7; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.5–1.9), iron deficiency (1.3; 1.2–1.4), and homozygous a-thalassemia (1.3; 1.1–1.4). Characteristics associated with severe anemia were malaria (10.2; 3.5–29.3), inflammation (6.7; 2.3–19.4), and stunting (1.6; 1.0–2.4). Overall 16.8% of anemia cases were associated with malaria,
8.3% with iron deficiency, and 6.1% with inflammation. Interventions should address malaria, iron deficiency, and nonmalarial infections to decrease the burden of anemia in this population.

Reading Now Download Here......