Anemia Prvalence And Associated Factors Among School Age Children In Accra And Kumasi Metropolis In Ghana
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Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ajfand
Abstract
Anemia remains a serious public health concern, globally, affecting learning ability and
physical development of children. Anemic children are at a higher risk of diminished
economic productivity and low earning capacity in adulthood due to impaired school
performance and reduced work capacity. Anemia contributes to about a quarter of
Africa’s nutrition-related Disability Adjusted Life Years. The objective of this study
was to determine the prevalence of anemia and its associated risk factors among
school-aged children (SAC) between ages 9 and 15 years in urban Ghana. The analysis
included a randomly selected subsample of 1,634 children from a larger study on
nutrition of SAC enrolled between 2009 and 2012 in private and public basic schools in
the Accra and Kumasi Metropolis in Ghana. Socio-demographic and household
characteristics were collected with questionnaires. Weight and height were taken to the
nearest 0.1kg and 0.1cm, respectively. Dietary information was collected using a food
frequency questionnaire. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistic version 23. The
relationship between hemoglobin levels and socio-demographic variables, and
predictors of hemoglobin levels were determined using Chi-square and binary logistic
regression. The mean hemoglobin concentration of the study participants was 12.9±1.3
g/dL. In Kumasi, SAC had higher mean hemoglobin concentration (13.1±1.2 g/dL)
compared to those from Accra (12.6±1.3 g/dL; p=0.001). Mean hemoglobin
concentration was significantly higher among males than females (13.0±1.4 g/dL vs
12.8±1.2 g/dL; p=0.002). Prevalence of anemia was 20.4%; mild anemia was most
common (13.6% of total sample). Anemia cases were higher in public schools (24.6%)
compared to private (18.2%). Two-thirds of anemia cases (64.0%) were from schools in
Accra. Males had significantly higher prevalence of anemia (26.5%) than females
(15.9%; p <0.05). In the adjusted logistic regression model, only city of residence
(OR+1.65, 95% CI: 1.44–1.83), thinness (OR=2.60, 95% CI: 1.11-5.75), stunting
(OR=1.85, 95% CI: 1.99-3.10) and overweight (OR=0.60, 95% CI: 0.36-0.94) were
significantly associated with anemia. In this study, anemia was significantly associated
with location and nutritional status.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
anemia, Ghana, hemoglobin, school children, urban settings, metropolis, Accra, Kumasi