Analyzing Anemia Spread among Nigerian Children Aged 0-59 Months

Background: Anemia remains one of the most difficult public health problems to manage in malaria-endemic countries of Africa, affecting more than half of children less than five years old. It poses a major public health issue that increases the risk of child mortality.

Objectives: The study seeks to estimate the spatial distribution and quantify the effects of socioeconomic variables on the level and spread of anemia prevalence among young children in Nigeria

Methods: The study used data from the 2010 and 2015 Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey carried out by the National Population Commission (NPC) in conjunction with The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program. The hemoglobin level of the children was considered as a response variable. A structured additive distributional regression model that quantifies the effects of variables of different types was considered and parameter estimation was through a Bayesian approach.

Results: From the 10972 respondents, Female children have a slightly higher average Hb (11.17 g/dl) than male children (10.88g/dl). The average Hb for all the children residing in urban areas is 11.10g/dl (95% CI: 10.98 to 111.22) while it is 10.87 g/dl (95% CI: 10.78 to 10.96) for those living in rural areas and About 369/4978 (7.4%) of children who had malaria in the last 2 weeks had severe anemia while 2556/4978 (51.3%) had moderate anemia where children in North West were associated with significantly higher Hb level

Conclusions: The children that had a fever in the last two weeks do not contribute to Hb level but children that reside in rural areas are most likely to be anemic. Children are less likely to be anemic when the hemoglobin level tends to be high, therefore, Anemia among young children can be cured through a combination of various nutritional interventions such as micronutrient supplementation and through the proper treatment of diseases that causes a shortage in red blood cells.