Prevalence and types of anemia in infancy, Egypt: cross-sectional study

Egyptian Pediatric Association Gazette

Table 1 A detailed univariate analysis of maternal and infant factors with infant anemia

Variable	Anemic (n= 219/498)		P-value
Variable	No./group	% to its group	P-value
1-Infant gender:
Male:	116/268	43.3	0.74
Female:	103/230	44.8	0.74
2-Age in months:
6-12 months	142/285	49.8	0.002
> 12 months	77/213	36.2	0.002
3-Birth Weight:
Normal	180/429	42.1	0.04
Low birth weight	38/69	55.1	0.04
4-Exclusive breastfeeding in the first 4 months
Yes	148/312	47.4	0.04
No	71/186	38.2	0.04
5-Iron supplementation
Yes	37/105	35.2	0.04
No	182/393	46.3	0.04
6- Infant order in the family
First & second	152/344	44.2	0.16
Third & fourth	62/135	45.9	0.16
7-Mother age :
Less than 20 years	9/21	42.9	0.14
20-30 years	166/356	46.6
>30 years	44/121	36.4
8-Maternal anemia during pregnancy
Yes	106/214	49.5	0.03
No	113/284	39.8	0.03

Multivariate logistic regression analysis was done for all significant factors to identify and rank significant predictors of anemia while controlling for confounding variables. It was found that infant age 6-12 months, low birth weight infants, and maternal anemia during pregnancy were the most significant risk factors for anemia in those infants as shown in Table 2