Anemia is major health problem throughout the world. It is associated with serious consequences including growth retardation, impaired motor and cognitive development, and increased morbidity and mortality. Estimates suggest that 47.4% of children are anemic globally. The magnitude of the problem in developing countries is high, since they are more exposed to various health and socioeconomic problems which are directly or indirectly related with anemia.
To assess the prevalence of anemia and associated factors among Children attended at Jimma Medical Center, South West Ethiopia.
An institutional based cross-sectional study design was employed from April 15 to 30/2016. Data was collected by face to face interviews by trained data collectors using pretested structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. Chi-square was used to identify the association between dependent and independent variables with p-value < 0.05.
From the total of 212 children involved in the study, 96 (45.3) were males and 116 (54.7%) were females with the mean age of the of 6 years. The overall prevalence of anemia was 95 (44.8%) of which 44 (20.7%) males and 51 (24.1%) females. The mean hematocrit was 29.3%. From the total observed children 55 (26%) had mild anemia, 31 (14.6%) had moderate anemia and 9 (4.2%) had severe anemia.
Generally, the prevalence of anemia has relation with illiteracy of mothers, reduced family income malaria and diarrhea of children, therefore it is better to encourage and practice partners on child health care and to improve it.