PLoS ONE
Volume 13, Issue 10, 2018
Anemia and associated factors among adolescent girls living in Aw-Barre refugee camp, Somali regional state, Southeast Ethiopia (Article) (Open Access)
Engidaw M.T. ,
Wassie M.M. ,
Teferra A.S.
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a
Social and Population Health Unit, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia
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b
Department of Human Nutrition, Institute of Public Health, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
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c
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
Abstract
Background Adolescent girls have a higher risk of anemia due to an increased requirement, low intake of hematopoietic nutrients and low intake of a nutrient that enhance absorption of these hematopoietic nutrients. Adolescent girls living in refugee camps are more vulnerable to anemia. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of anemia and associated factors among adolescent girls aged 10-19 years in Aw-Barre refugee camp, Somalia regional state, Southeast Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study design was employed. Study participants were recruited using a simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Hemoglobin level was tested using HemoCueHb 301 from 10μl finger prick blood samples. Adolescents with a hemoglobin level of >12.5gm/dl after altitude adjustment were classified as anemic. Data were entered using Epi Info version 7.0 and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Binary logistic regression was used to explore the association of independent variables with anemia. Variables having P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results Four hundred thirty-seven adolescent girls participated in the study with a response rate of 95.83%. The prevalence of anemia was 22% (95% CI (17.6, 26.1)). Late adolescents were 2 times more likely to have anemia as compared to early adolescents (AOR: 1.95, 95% CI (1.09, 3.47). Those who stayed ≥8 years in the camp were 3 times more likely to develop anemia (AOR: 2.92, 95% CI (1.14, 7.50)). Those who ate heme iron food sources less than one time per month were 11 times more likely to develop anemia compared to those who ate more than twice within a week (AOR: 11.42, 95% CI (3.42, 38.18)). Copyright: © 2018 Engidaw et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85054714979&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0205381&partnerID=40&md5=807e9103d28eea9195639317cbe61e99
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205381
ISSN: 19326203
Original Language: English