Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 6, 2023; 11(28): 6744-6753
Published online Oct 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i28.6744
Anemia status of infants and young children aged six to thirty-six months in Ma'anshan City: A retrospective study
Xue-Mei Wang, Qiong-Yao Wang, Jie Huang
Xue-Mei Wang, Qiong-Yao Wang, Department of Pediatric, Ma’anshan Maternal and Child Health Center, Ma’anshan 243011, Anhui Province, China
Jie Huang, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Wang XM contributed to the conceptualization, project administration, visualization, and writing-review & editing; Wang XM and Huang J contributed to the data curation, methodology, and writing-original draft; Wang QY contributed to the formal analysis, software, and supervision; Huang J contributed to the resources and validation; Wang XM and Wang QY contributed to the investigation.
Institutional review board statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013). The study was approved by Institutional Review Board of Ma’anshan Maternal and Child Health Center. All the study subjects provided informed consent.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Not applicable.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xue-Mei Wang, MM, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Pediatric, Ma’anshan Maternal and Child Health Center, No. 446 Jiashan Road, Ma’anshan 243011, Anhui Province, China. xuemeiwang23@163.com
Received: August 21, 2023
Peer-review started: August 21, 2023
First decision: August 30, 2023
Revised: August 31, 2023
Accepted: September 6, 2023
Article in press: September 6, 2023
Published online: October 6, 2023
Processing time: 35 Days and 1.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Anemia in infants and young children can have long-term effects on cognitive and physical development. Understanding the factors that influence this is essential for targeted interventions and improving overall child health in the region.

Research motivation

Anemia is a serious global public health problem affecting about one third of the world's population. In infants and young children, anemia has an irreversible adverse impact on growth and development and is associated with impaired psychomotor development, cognitive impairment, and reduced physical activity. In recent years, China has paid attention to the prevention and treatment of anemia in children, but the prevalence of anemia is still high. There were significant differences in the prevalence of anemia among children of different ages and regions. Therefore, there is an urgent need to analyze regional children's anemia data and implement effective targeted interventions.

Research objectives

To analyze the anemia status and influencing factors of infants and young children aged 6 to 36 mo in Ma'anshan City, China. Providing scientific evidence for reducing the incidence of anemia and improving the health level of children in this age group.

Research methods

A total of 37698 infants and young children aged 6 to 36 mo who received health examinations at the Ma'anshan Maternal and Child Health Hospital from January 2018 to October 2022 were included in the study. Basic information, physical examination, and hemoglobin detection data were collected. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the prevalence of anemia in children in the region, and univariate analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors of anemia.

Research results

The detection rate of anemia in infants and young children aged 9-36 mo decreased with age. The prevalence of anemia in rural infants was higher than that in urban infants. Boys at the age of 6 mo had a higher rate of anemia than girls, and girls at the age of 24 mo had a higher rate of anemia than boys. There was a significant difference in the rate of anemia between infants at 9 mo and 12 mo of age, and the rate of anemia in obese infants was higher than that in normal and overweight infants at 9 and 12 mo of age.

Research conclusions

Anemia is common in infants aged 6-36 mo in Ma 'anshan city of China, which is affected by many factors. It is suggested that we should pay more attention to the infants with anemia, strengthen education and targeted prevention and dietary guidance, help them to establish good living habits, improve nutritional status, reduce the incidence of anemia, and improve children's health.

Research perspectives

Our future research will be based on improving the health of children, must focus on the vulnerable groups, to provide specialized education, diet guidance and preventive measures, so as to promote healthy habits and better nutrition results. Providing scientific evidence for reducing the incidence of anemia and improving the health level of children in this age group.