Prevalence of Anaemia and Associated Factors among Children Aged 03-06 Years in Rural Haryana: A Cross-Sectional Community-Based Study

Abstract

The present study hypothesized that low haemoglobin concentration in rural Haryana children primary result from micronutrient (especially iron) deficiency attributable to dietary intake compounded by adverse socioeconomic conditions.

Three fourth among Indian children are reported anaemic. Diet poor in iron are effecting their overall growth and development. In this community based cross sectional study all the children aged 3-6 years attending Anganwadis in the rural Haryana state in India were studied. A Semi-structured, pilot tested questionnaire was used to collect data regarding socio- demographic profile, dietary intake, and utilization of health services. Haemoglobin estimation was done by cyanmethaemoglobin method. SPSS (version 17.0) software was used. Rates, proportion and chi square test were used to analyze the data. Sample size was 402 and response rate was 93.5%. Mean age of the participants was 4.24±0.89 years. The study reported that 271(72.07%) of the children aged between 3-6 years in the study area were anaemic. Anaemia was more prevalent among 177(83.1%) girls, 46(79.3) with Low Birth Weight, 139(85.8%) underweight children and 179(79.9%) children not taking Fruits and Vegetables at least once a day and differences were statistically significant. Prevalence of anaemia among children taking IFA supplementation and de-worming was 10(58.8). The study concludes that all most three fourth of children aged 3-6 years in the study areas were anaemic due to gap in quantity and quality of iron rich foods in their diet. It is recommended to strengthen the IFA supplementation and de-worming program for the children as well create awareness among the community for better use of locally available iron rich foods like fruits/ vegetables and haem-iron rich foods of animal origin.