Diarrhea and fever as risk factors for anemia among children under age five living in urban slum areas of Indonesia.
OBJECTIVE
To characterize diarrhea and fever as risk factors for anemia among children in developing countries.


METHODS
We characterized risk factors for anemia in a sample of 32873 children, aged 6-59 months, from poor families in urban slum areas of Indonesia from 2000 to 2003.


RESULTS
The prevalence of anemia was 58.7%. In separate multivariate models, after adjusting for age, sex, stunting, maternal age and education, and weekly per capita household expenditure, current diarrhea (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.07-1.35, p=0.002), current fever (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.18-1.75, p<0.0001), and a history of diarrhea in the previous seven days (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.03-1.23, p=0.024) were associated with an increased risk of anemia.


CONCLUSIONS
Diarrhea and fever are important risk factors for anemia among young children living in urban slum communities in Indonesia.
Semba
Richard D
RD
The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, 550 N. Broadway, Suite 700, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. rdsemba@jhmi.edu
de Pee
Saskia
S
Ricks
Michelle O
MO
Sari
Mayang
M
Bloem
Martin W
MW
D000740:Anemia / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011204:Poverty Areas; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D014505:Urban Population