Arnab Ghosh^1,, Dilasma Ghartimagar¹, Sushma Thapa¹, Brijesh Sathian², Asis De²

Iron deficiency is a major global health issue and it causes anemia as well as impaired cognitive and motor development and behavioral abnormalities. In developing countries, 39% children below 5 years and 48% children between 5–14 years suffer from anemia. Children with anemia may present in hospital with anemia related nonspecific or specific symptoms or with other associated diseases. In the current study, we have analyzed all pediatric cases with microcytic hypochromic anemia due to iron deficiency. The study was a hospital based retrospective study conducted over a period from September 2013 to December 2014. All cases with age between 1 month to 15 years who had microcytic hypochromic anemia were included in the study and were evaluated for definite diagnoses. All cases with iron deficiency were collated according to age, sex, social status, clinical features and presentation. A total of 422 cases of microcytic hypochromic anemia including 400 cases with iron deficiency were seen in the study period. Male to female ratio was 1.5:1 and the mean age was 4.9 years. The commonest age group was between 1-6 years (45%), followed by the group below 1 year of age (33.8%) and those above 6 years of age (21.2%). The majority of the patients were in the lower socio economic status (SES) (234 cases, 58.5%) followed by middle SES (118 cases, 29.5%) and higher SES (48 cases, 12%). Most of the cases presented with acute infections (234, 58.5%), followed by chronic infections (103, 25.8%) and chronic non-infectious diseases (43, 10.8%). The commonest clinical feature was pallor followed by nonspecific symptoms like generalized weakness and fever, vomiting, abdominal pain, cough. In the pediatric age group, IDA is the commonest type of anemia and is more common in infant and young children especially in lower SES which is similar to other developing countries. In this hospital based study, most cases presented with acute or chronic infections and very few cases presented with complaints related only to anemia. Community based programs might be carried out to increase the awareness of the society about proper nutrition and early detection of anemia.

Pediatric, Microcytic Hypochromic, Iron Deficiency, Anemia