Īs such, the school performance, standard of health, and quality of life of individuals with anemia tend to be lower than in people who are not anemic, for which reason initiatives for its prevention and treatment should be prioritized in the public policies geared towards this age group. Īlthough pregnant women and children under 5 are the biological groups with the highest susceptibility to iron deficiency anemia, it also affects many school-age children, which is a concern because of the impacts it has on physical and intellectual capacity and on the growth and development of individuals, while also predisposing them to a higher frequency of morbidity. In Brazil, the short duration of exclusive breastfeeding, diarrhea, and lack of basic sanitation are also reported as major factors associated with low hemoglobin levels. Thus, although there are several other factors that affect the availability of iron to meet the metabolic requirements of the organism, the risk factors for anemia most frequently cited in the literature are low family income, low maternal level of education, and inadequate iron intake. , in Brazil, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Bolivia, anemia in children under 6 years of age is a moderate public health problem whose prevalence ranges from 21.4 to 38.3 %.ĭespite its multifactorial etiology and distribution amongst all social strata, anemia is more frequent in contexts characterized by poor socioeconomic conditions, and where there is a low consumption of iron alongside the intake of substances that inhibit iron absorption.

According to data from a literature review conducted by Mujica-Coopman et al. Affecting around 25 % of the world population, anemia is currently the most widespread nutritional deficiency worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines iron deficiency anemia as a state in which blood hemoglobin concentrations are abnormally low in virtue of the deficiency of one or more essential nutrients, no matter what the cause of this deficiency. Considering the associated factors and the fact that these children are in a school environment, the promotion of healthy eating habits could constitute an important approach for reducing the prevalence of anemia. In the population under study, anemia constitutes a major health problem, especially among children from public schools. At the public schools, the variables that remained significantly associated with anemia after the multivariate analysis were “consumption of fruits/fruit juices < 2 portions/day” (PR = 2.19 CI95 %: 1.18 4.06) and “male” (PR = 1.51 CI95 %: 1.001 2.30). The prevalence of anemia was found to be higher amongst the public school children than the private school children (10.8 % vs.

The measure of association used was prevalence ratio (PR) and respective CI95 %, calculated by Poisson regression with robust variance adjustment, for the crude and adjusted analyses. Anemia (Hb <11.5 g/dL) was the dependent variable. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to obtain socioeconomic, demographic, anthropomorphic, hemoglobin (Hb), and dietary data. MethodsĪ cross-sectional study was conducted using probability sampling of 1518 children (9.8 ± 0.5 years of age) attending public ( n = 931) and private ( n = 587) elementary schools in the municipality.

The analysis was stratified to identify any effect modification according to whether they attend public or private schools. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of and factors associated with anemia in school children from the city of Maceió, Alagoas state, Brazil. However, due to the lack of studies, it is not known how widespread this condition is among older children or how it is associated with socioeconomic status. Anemia is a major public health problem in preschool children in Alagoas, Brazil, especially in the younger population, because of a positive correlation between hemoglobin level and age.

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