Prevalence of Anemia among Children and Adolescents of Bangladesh: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 20; no. 3; p. 1786
• Main Authors: Kundu, Shoumik, Alam, Sayeda Sadia, Mia, Md Al-Tareq, Hossan, Tareq, Hider, Phil, Khalil, Md Ibrahim, Musa, Kamarul Imran, Islam, Md Asiful
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 18.01.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Age groups; Anemia; Anemia - epidemiology; Anemia - etiology; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency - epidemiology; Bangladesh - epidemiology; Bias; Blood; Blood diseases; Cancer; Case reports; Child; Children; Chronic illnesses; Cohort analysis; Food; Hemoglobin; Humans; Infant; Infections; Iron; Malnutrition; Menstruation; Meta-analysis; Nutrient deficiency; Nutrition; Nutritional Status; Outliers (statistics); Prevalence; Socioeconomics; Software; Systematic review; Teenagers; Undernutrition; Young adults; Bangladesh; prevalence; Bangladesh; adolescents; children; anemia
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20031786

The prevalence of anemia is high among children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries because of undernutrition resulting from their poor socioeconomic status and lack of knowledge on proper nutrition. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the prevalence of anemia among children and adolescents aged between 6 months and 19 years in Bangladesh. Databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched to identify the studies that reported the prevalence of anemia among children and adolescents. A total of 24 studies, including the data of 14,062 cases, were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis of the time period between 1997 and 2019. The random-effects model was used to calculate the summary estimates. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021246960). The pooled prevalence of anemia, iron deficiency anemia (IDA), and non-severe and severe anemia were 46.8% [95% CI: 36.0-57.6], 13.6% [95% CI: 8.0-19.2], 56.4% [95% CI: 39.6-73.1] and 0.7% [95% CI: 0.1-1.4], respectively. Prevalence of anemia exhibited the highest among the children aged ≤2 years. Briefly, 91.67% of the studies were of high quality. No significant publication bias was found; however, two outlier studies were detected. The prevalence of anemia among children and adolescents was estimated as high in Bangladesh.