Prevalence of Anemia in Children Caused by Deficiencies of Iron, Folic Acid and B12 Vitamin in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Abstract

Objectives: Anemia is a worldwide health problem in children, particularly in developing countries; we stress the importance of recognizing its multifactorial etiology for developing effective control programmes. This is the first study in Honduras related with prevalence and etiology of anemia. Objective: To determine the prevalence of anemia and those caused by deficiencies of iron, folic acid and B12 vitamin. Methods: It is a descriptive transversal study; the subjects were all first grade children of public schools. The sample consisted of 450 children; cluster sampling distributed over 8 schools in the city’s perimeter. Each child was identified by name, age, sex, and school name; the average age was 6.66 years old. Automatized methods were used for hemoglobin, hematocrit, ferritin, folic acid and B12 vitamin measurement. Results: The prevalence of anemia (hemoglobin < 11.5 g/dl) was 8.7%, 17.2% of the children had hemoglobin between 11.5 g/dl and 11.9 g/dl and one child had hemoglobin of 8.8 g/dl. Of the total of anemic children, 8.3% were deficient in ferritin, 5.5% in B12 vitamin and 5.5% deficient in both ferritin and B12 vitamin; none had folate deficiency. Children without anemia were also evaluated for the same micronutrients, we found 5.3% were deficient in ferritin, 8.5% deficient on B12 vitamin and 0.8% were deficient on both ferritin and B12 vitamin. Conclusions: Anemia in schoolchildren is a public health problem in Honduras that needs prevention and intervention. We found more deficiency in B12 vitamin than iron, a fact important for intervention programmes.