Prevalence and Morphological Types of Anaemia among Severely Anaemic Children Admitted in Hospitals in Bushenyi District, Uganda

Abstract

Severe anaemia is a major cause of paediatric hospital admissions and deaths in many African countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. In resource-limited nations with poor diagnostic capacity, the morphological type of anaemia gives insight into the probable cause of anaemia. The study described the prevalence and morphological types of anaemia among severely anaemic children aged 2 months to 12 years of age admitted at three hospitals in the Bushenyi district. A cross-sectional descriptive study among 225 children aged 2 months to 12 years admitted in paediatric wards of three hospitals in Bushenyi district, Kampala International University Teaching Hospital, Comboni Hospital, and Ishaka Adventist Hospital from April 2017 to December 2017. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire, entered using Excel and analysed using STATA 2016. Proportions were used to obtain the prevalence of children with severe anaemia and the morphological types of anaemia. The prevalence of severe anaemia was 8.1%. Of this prevalence, 71.6% were under the age of five years. The morphological types of anaemia were normocytic normochromic anaemia (56.4%), microcytic hypochromic anaemia (27.1%) and macrocytic anaemia (16.4%). Severe anaemia was common among children admitted to hospitals in Bushenyi district. The majority of the children had normocytic normochromic, followed by microcytic hypochromic and macrocytic anaemia. We therefore recommend that clinicians should routinely screen and type anaemia for the proper management of children presenting with anaemia at our health facilities.