Abstract

CRUZ-GONGORA, Vanessa de la; VILLALPANDO, Salvador; MUNDO-ROSAS, Verónica  and  SHAMAH-LEVY, Teresa. Prevalence of anemia in Mexican children and adolescents: Results from three national surveys. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2013, vol.55, suppl.2, pp.S180-S189. ISSN 0036-3634.

Objective. To describe the prevalence of anemia in Mexican children and adolescents from ENSANUT 2012. Materials and methods. Data had the power to make distinctions at the national, regional and rural/urban dwelling. Hemoglobin was measured by Hemocue. Descriptions were made by adjusted frequencies and 95%CI. Confounders were tested in a logistic regression models. Results. The prevalence of anemia in 2012 was: in children 1-4 y, 23.3%; 5-11y, 10.1%, and 12-19 y, 5.6%. The prevalence in female adolescents was 7.7% and 3.6% in males. Reductions in the prevalence of anemia from 1999 was 8.3pp in <5y, 5.1pp in children 5-11y and 3.6pp from 2006 in adolescents. Conclusions. Despite the decrease in the prevalence of anemia in children 1-4 y in the last 13 years, it still is of great concern. There is a need of awareness among social and medical communities about this, to extend the distribution of micronutrient supplements in children <3y, and to promote nutritional education to incentive mothers to provide foods rich in iron.

Keywords : anemia; epidemiology; nutritional surveys; Mexican children; adolescents.

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