IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine prevalence of irondeficiency anemia in children of Lahore. Study Design: Cross sectional survey. Setting:Hospitals in different areas of Lahore. Period: 3 months. Methodology: A total sample of threehundred and sixty children was taken from different areas of Lahore. Simple random samplingtechnique was used. Data collection was done by using a cross sectional survey. An informedconsent was taken from the parents of children selected for including in the study and usingtheir data for research purpose. The complete demographic information like name, age, sex,address was obtained. Venous blood samples were obtained for analysis of their hemoglobin(Hb) level. All the data collected was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Results:A total of 360 children were selected for the study. The mean age of respondents was 9.87 ±2.67. Among all subjects there were 158(43.89%) male and 202 (56.1%) were female patients.The mean Hb in all subjects was 9.82 ± 3.46. The overall prevalence of iron deficiency anemiawas 224(62.2%). Among anemic patients there 101 (45%) male and 123 (55%) female patientsin this study, we found no significant association between anemia and gender, p-value >0.05.Conclusion: Prevalence of iron deficiency anemia is considerably higher in children of Lahoreunder study. We should take some defensive measure to cope with it as mathematical deficiencyaffect children’s health, mental and physical activities.