Anemia and Associated Factors Among Under Five Year Old Children Who Attended Bule Hora General Hospital in West Guji zone, Southern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Anemia is a major global public health public health problem in the early stages of childhood, particularly in developing countries. In Africa, anemia causes higher morbidity and mortality among children less than five years old, especially in Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of anemia and its associated factors among children under five years old attending Bule Hora General Hospital, West Guji Zone, southern Ethiopia. METHODS: A hospital-based quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted at Bule Hora General Hospital, Southern Ethiopia from October to November 2020. A convenience sampling technique was used to include 375 under five children enrolled in the study. The pretested structure questionnaire was used to collect socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of study individuals after taking appropriate written informed consent. Then, a venous blood sample was collected from each child and analyzed for hemoglobin determination using a Cell-DYN 1800 machine. Binary logistic regression models were used to identify associated factors of anemia. A P value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of anemia among under five children was 13.2% (50) [95% CI=5.2–21.2%] of them anemic children, 11.1% (1) had mild anemia, and 33.3% (3) had moderate anemia and 55.6% (5) had severe anemia. In this study, anemia was significantly associated with recent intestinal protozoan infection [AOR=2.13, 95% CI=1.35–9.270], malaria infection [AOR=5.42, 95% CI=0.307–11.034] and soil-transmitted helminths infection [AOR=6.09, 95% CI=2.047–27.54]. CONCLUSION: Anemia among under five children in this study was found to be a mild public health problem. It could be managed by preventing malaria infection, intestinal protozoa and soil-transmitted helminthic infection.