Prevalence of Anaemia among Indian Children of Various Age Groups – A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Anaemia is the most common nutritional problem affecting various age group individuals all over the world. Iron deficiency anaemia is a major health problem since it impairs the cognitive development; causes delay growth, affect immune mechanism leading to various infections from infancy to adolescence. Objective: The objective of the present review study is to assess the prevalence of anaemia among Indian children of various age groups. Data Source and Eligibility Criteria: A total of 10 published articles on the aspects of prevalence of anaemia, particularly, among the children of various age groups were reviewed systematically, which were collected through google search. Studies considered in the present review paper were published during 2009 to 2016 years and data were selected against predetermined inclusion and exclusion. The age groups of the children were from 0-12 and 13-16 years, which cover infant, pre-school children, school going children and adolescent girls. Study Appraisal: Published articles on the aspects of anaemia of children and adolescent girls were peer reviewed with full one-line text available. Only the relevant studies were included to make suitable for synthesis and meaningful relationship in the present study. Synthesis Method: Data collected from various ten (10) published articles were combined together after carefully reviewed and presented them systematically taking consideration to the year of publications, age of the children, sample size, study design and finding of the studies in a summarized tabular form. Limitation and Key Finding: Limitations regarding the estimation of haemoglobin were found varied and data of the same group of children were not found from the different retrieved published articles. The proportion of severe anaemia among school children and adolescents were not observed in the reviewed studies.  However, the overall prevalence of anaemia could be observed in high percentages from the reported data during the year 2009-2016. Conclusion: The key finding of this review study was   that during the early age groups of children, boys were more affected than girls, however, at the adolescent stage with the commencement of menstrual cycle, girls were more suffered from anaemia as compared with those of boys. Further, it was also observed that the highest prevalence of anaemia in Faridkot district of Punjab were 91.69% and 93.94% for boys and girls respectively [1].