Frecuencia de anemia ferropénica en niños de 0 a 5 años que acuden al Hospital “José Carrasco Arteaga”. Periodo 2016 - 2018

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency anemia is considered the greatest public health problem worldwide, mainly in children under 5 years of age. According to definitions of deficiency anemia: iron deficiency anemia consists of alterations in hemoglobin synthesis in addition to the lack or deficiency of nutritional elements such as iron which is a component of hemoglobin and myoglobin. The decrease in iron concentration is the most common nutritional deficiency; iron is really important at a nutritional level, about 30% of the population has suffered from this deficiency and 50% of cases have suffered from iron deficiency anemia. Here, the iron deficiency anemia is very noticeable and frequent in the first years of life, it is related to diet. GENERAL OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of iron deficiency anemia in children from 0 to 5 years old who come to the José Carrasco Arteaga Hospital. METHODOLOGY: The present investigation was retrospective, descriptive and transversal. The analysis was carried out based on the data collected from the medical records which are registered in the AS400 database of children under 5 years of age who were attended in the areas of neonatology, pediatrics and outpatient consultation, through statistical programs such as Microsoft Excel, and SPSS Statistics version 23.0. The sample size was purposeful. Applying descriptive statistics for frequency and percentage. RESULTS: The frequency of iron deficiency anemia was 1.2% in children who attended the José Carrasco Arteaga Hospital. The male sex presented 62.5% of cases with a diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia. Regarding the hospital area of greatest assistance it was an outpatient clinic with 77.1%. Children in the 0-23 month age group (infants) were the most affected with 65.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Iron deficiency anemia presented low in children under 5 years of age who attended the José Carrasco Arteaga Hospital during the years 2016 to 2018, predominant in infants.