breast feeding; type of weaning food; and mother’s Hb
concentration.
The prevalence of anemia was significantly high among
children aged 5 years, moderately/severely stunted (z score of
height for age 62.0) children, children who had lesser duration
of breast feeding, and children who had cereals alone or combination
of cereals, fruits and vegetables as their weaning food.
Also anemia was significantly more prevalent among children
of anemic mothers.
Significantly positive correlations were observed between
child’s hemoglobin concentrations and child’s height, weight,
mother’s age and hemoglobin (Table 2). The correlations were
not strong, however the highest among them was the one
between hemoglobin concentrations of child and mother
(r = 0.123, P = 0.003). Mother’s height, weight and child’s
birth weight were not significantly correlated with the child’s
hemoglobin concentrations.
Table 3 shows risk factors associated with the presence of
anemia among the studied sample by multivariate logistic
regression analysis. Child’s age, height, weight, duration of
breast feeding, type of weaning food, mother’s age, and Hb
concentration were significantly independent factors associated
with the prevalence of anemia after confounding for other
variables. The risk for a child aged 5 years to have anemia was
1.8 times than a child aged 4 years; a moderately/severely
stunted child (height for age z score 62.0) was 2.3 times prone
to be anemic than a normal child; a moderately/severely overweight
child (z score >2.0) was less likely to be anemic; a child