Aetio-pathological profile of anaemic children belonging to upper socioeconomic society in a tertiary care hospital of North India

Abstract

Introduction: Anaemia is a major public health problem especially in the preschool age group. It is rampant even in children of upper and middle classes of the society.Objectives: To study the aetio-pathology of anaemia in children belonging to upper and upper middle socio-economic scale and to correlate it with their nutritional status. Method: It was a cross-sectional descriptive study on 165 preschool children aged 6-59 months who presented with pallor on clinical examination. They were advised to undergo a complete haemogram and further specific tests as required.  Results: The most common cause of anaemia was nutritional, including iron deficiency (92%), combined iron and B12 deficiency (2%) and isolated B12 deficiency (0.6%). Thalassaemia was the next common cause (3%) followed by B-acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (1%) and microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia (0.6%). Maternal education and nutritional awareness had positive correlation with anaemia. Majority of children were normally nourished despite being anaemic, However, undernourished children were more severely anaemic. Conclusions: Nutritional anaemia is the commonest cause of anaemia even in children belonging to higher socio-economic classes.