Prevalence and associated factors of anemia among children aged 6 to 59 months in Ethiopia: Evidence from the Ethiopian demographic and health survey

Anemia is one of the most widely spread public health problems, especially in developing countries including Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of anemia among children aged 6-59 months in Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study (the Ethiopian Demography and Health Survey 2016) was used as a source of data. Participants were 8385 children aged from 6 to 59 months selected in a two-stage stratified cluster sampling. The level of hemoglobin was determined by HemoCue analyzer. The risk factors of anemia were computed by logistic regression (α=0.05). The result revealed that more than half (57.3%) of children aged 6-59 months were found anemic of which 3.1% had severe anemia, 29.2% had moderate and 25% mild anemia. The anemia status of the children’s mother (OR: 3.01, CI: 0.34, 6.75), living in Somali region (OR: 5.73, CI: 1.86, 17.71), living in rural areas (OR: 1.84, CI: 1.38, 2.83), age of study participants (OR: 0.82, CI: 0.29,1.45) among 24-42 months old children (OR: 0.53, CI: 0.16,1.08) among 43-59 months old children, rich and medium parents (OR: 0.29, CI: 0.20,0.73), smoker mother (OR: 0.02, CI: 0.00, 0.05) were the risk factors of anemia among Ethiopian children aged 6-59 months. The overall prevalence of anemia among Ethiopian children aged 6–59 months was high. It is argued that measures that prevent childhood illnesses and maternal anemia need to be put in place in order to reduce anemia among Ethiopian children.