Anemia as an indicator of nutrition in children enrolled in a Head Start program.
A retrospective chart review was conducted on the records of 467 children who were enrolled in the Head Start program in Alachua County, Florida, which is one of four counties in Florida cited among the 150 worst "hunger counties" in the United States by the Harvard University School of Public Health. The children were examined in the 1989-1990 school year by a team of nurse practitioners, and the data were analyzed to determine the incidence and distribution of anemia. Twenty-five percent of the sample was white, and 75% was black. One half of the white children and 20% of the black children attended schools in rural areas. The mean sample hematocrit value was 35.7%. Twenty-one percent of the sample had hematocrit values of less than 34.0%. More black children were anemic in both rural and urban groups. Black males had the highest rate of anemia at 27.3%; white females had the lowest rate of anemia at 9.8%. These data show that anemia is a serious problem among children from low-income families and suggest that government nutrition programs such as food stamps and WIC are not meeting the needs of these children.
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D000747:Anemia, Hypochromic / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology*; D002648:Child; D015362:Child Nutrition Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D005522:Food Services; D006400:Hematocrit; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population