NUTRITIONAL AND SOCIO ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF HEMOGLOBIN LEVEL IN CHILDREN AGED 12-24 MONTHS.
Author(s)
Fotedar A1, Bhasin J2, Chakravarty A3, Kulkarni A4
1Pediatric, delhi, India, 2BL Kapur super Speciality hospital, delhi, India, 3Childrens Clinic, Delhi, India, 4Kulkarni Children's Medical Centre, Delhi, India
OBJECTIVES: Anemia is multifactorial in etiology. Preventative efforts, predominantly focused on increasing iron intake between the period of conception and 24 months of age as this duration is sensitive to nutrient effects on child growth, cognition, and school attainment. However, Data on association of various factors on hemoglobin level are limited. Heance the objective was to determine biological, nutritional and socioeconomic factors associated with hemoglobin level in Indian children aged 0-24 months. METHODS: A cross sectional Pilot study was conducted over a period of 4 months (Nov 2015 – Feb 2016) in three pediatric outpatient clinics of New Delhi, India. A predesigned questionnaire was used to record data by the pediatrician from 66 mother and child pair. Socio-demographic profile, birth weight, anthropometric, feeding pattern and consumption of Iron fortified cereals was collected. Hemoglobin estimation was done as a part of normal examination by the pediatrician. A child was considered to be on Iron fortified cereals if a minimum 1-2 serving/day was feed along with homemade foods. RESULTS: The prevalence of anemia (hb <11 g/dl) in study sample was 42.4%.The mean age with hemoglobin of <11g/dl and >11g/dl was 13.7+3.7 months and 12+1.0 months respectively. Similarly for these two group mean birthweight and BMI was 2.6+0.6 kg, 2.9+0.3kg and 14.6+1.14 kg/m, 16.1+1.01 kg/mrespectively. The results of multiple linear regression showed that Hemoglobin was significantly associated with birth weight (p = 0.0001) and consumption of iron fortified cereals (p=0.001) whereas age of mother (p=0.145), parity (p=0.08) and maternal education (p=0.09) were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Consumption of iron fortification cereals was significantly associate with hemoglobin level. Given the negative impact of anemia on the development of children in future, there is an urgent need for effective remedial public health interventions. due to limited geographic location and small sample size, further larger and controlled studies are needed.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2017-05, ISPOR 2017, Boston, MA, USA
Value in Health, Vol. 20, No. 5 (May 2017)
Code
PIH12
Topic
Epidemiology & Public Health
Disease
Pediatrics