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. 2019 Feb 20;19(1):215.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6547-1.

Prevalence and risk factors of anemia in children aged from 6 to 59 months in Togo: analysis from Togo demographic and health survey data, 2013-2014

Aboubakari Nambiema  1 , Alexie Robert  2 , Issifou Yaya  3
Affiliations

Prevalence and risk factors of anemia in children aged from 6 to 59 months in Togo: analysis from Togo demographic and health survey data, 2013-2014

Aboubakari Nambiema et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Anemia in children continues to be a major public health challenge in developing countries and particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Anemia has serious consequences on the growth and development of the children in the early stages of life. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of anemia among children from 6 to 59 months in Togo.

Methods: Data from the Togo Demographic and Health Survey 2013-2014 were used for this study. This nationally representative survey provided data on a wide range of indicators such as mother and child health, nutrition and other characteristics. Anemia status was determined using hemoglobin level (Hb < 11.0 g/dl), and the weighted prevalence of childhood anemia along with 95% confidence intervals were provided. Data were analyzed using logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for associated factors.

Results: Two thousand eight hundred ninety children aged 6-59 months were included in this analysis. The weighted prevalence of anemia was 70.9% [95% CI = 68.8-73.1] with 2.6% [95% CI = 2.0-3.3] of severe anemia among these children. In the multivariate analysis, the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for anemia was 0.33 [95% CI = 0.26-0.42] in children aged from 24 to 42 months and 0.22 [95% CI = 0.17-0.29] in children aged from 43 to 59 months. Children's malaria status was strongly associated to childhood anemia with an aOR of 3.03 [95% CI = 2.49-3.68]. The secondary level of education and more for the mother was associated to childhood anemia with an aOR of 0.67 [95% CI = 0.52-0.86]. The aOR for children whose mother had anemia was 1.62 [95% CI = 1.30-2.02].

Conclusion: This study has highlighted the high prevalence of childhood anemia in Togo and revealed that younger children and maternal anemia were positively associated to childhood anemia whereas age of children and high level of maternal education were negatively associated to childhood anemia.

Keywords: Anemia; Children; Prevalence; Risk factors; Togo.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

No ethical approval was needed for this study because the anonymous data, with no personal identifier or link, was received from the DHS program.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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