Magesa A S, Magesa P M
Department of Laboratory Services, Muhimbili National Hospital, Tanzania.
East Afr J Public Health. 2012 Sep;9(3):96-100.
Anaemia is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in paediatric age with much aetiology. The magnitude of childhood anaemia has been inadequately studied at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH). The study was aimed at determining the frequency of anaemia and associated infections in patients admitted in general paediatric wards at MNH in Dar es Salaam.
This was a descriptive cross-sectional study.
This was conducted at MNH in general paediatric wards from 20th August, 2009 to 15th December, 2009.
Patients, aged 1-84 months, consecutively admitted were recruited in the study. After informed verbal consent from the guardian or parent was obtained, information on demographic and clinical characteristics was collected from the parent or guardian. Physical examination and laboratory tests on blood ; stool samples for hookworm screening; blood slides for malaria parasites; Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening; and blood peripheral smears were done on all subjects. Additional information was taken from medical files. Data management: The prevalence of anemia was determined as a percentage of all paediatric patients recruited during the time of data collection. All information was recorded using questionnaires and analysis was done using SPSS version 13.0. A p value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
A total of 315 children were assessed. The frequency of anaemia was 79.4%. This is much higher than the WHO prevalence of 67.6% in Africa for anaemia to be taken as a disease of public health importance. The proportion of malaria was 7.9%, HIV seropositive was 10.2% and hookworm was 1.0% of all admissions. There was an increased risk of anaemia in patients with HIV seropositive and or malaria although this was not statistically significant (RR > 1.0, p > 0.05).
Anaemia in paediatric patients admitted at MNH is a disease of high public health importance in Dar es Salaam and may well carry a high burden in the rest of the country. Other risk factors of anaemia should be investigated with a goal of reducing the burden of anaemia.
贫血是病因众多的儿童期发病和死亡的主要原因。在穆希姆比利国家医院（MNH），儿童贫血的严重程度尚未得到充分研究。本研究旨在确定达累斯萨拉姆MNH综合儿科病房收治患者的贫血频率及相关感染情况。
这是一项描述性横断面研究。
于2009年8月20日至2009年12月15日在MNH综合儿科病房开展。
招募连续入院的1至84个月大的患者。在获得监护人或家长的知情口头同意后，从家长或监护人处收集人口统计学和临床特征信息。对所有受试者进行体格检查、血液实验室检查、用于钩虫筛查的粪便样本检查、用于疟原虫检测的血涂片检查、人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）筛查以及血液外周血涂片检查。从医疗档案中获取其他信息。数据管理：贫血患病率以数据收集期间招募的所有儿科患者的百分比来确定。所有信息均使用问卷记录，并使用SPSS 13.0版进行分析。p值<0.05被认为具有统计学意义。
共评估了315名儿童。贫血频率为79.4%。这远高于世界卫生组织认定具有公共卫生重要性的非洲地区67.6%的贫血患病率。疟疾患者占所有入院患者的7.9%，HIV血清阳性患者占10.2%，钩虫患者占1.0%。HIV血清阳性和/或疟疾患者贫血风险增加，尽管无统计学意义（RR>1.0，p>0.05）。
在达累斯萨拉姆，MNH收治的儿科患者贫血是一种具有高度公共卫生重要性的疾病，在该国其他地区可能也负担沉重。应调查贫血的其他危险因素，以减轻贫血负担。
