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Published on: January 19, 2024
Determinants associated with anemia level among children under 5 years in Gambia: a structural equation modelling
Opeyemi Roselyn Akindutire1, Shaun Ramroop1, Faustin Habyarimana1
1School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer, Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Dubarn, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Insights
Anemia in young children is a significant global health issue. Parental education and household resources strongly influence a child's anemia status, highlighting areas for public health intervention.
Area of Science:
- Child Health
- Public Health
- Socioeconomic Determinants of Health
Background:
- Anemia is a critical global health concern, particularly affecting children under five.
- It leads to significant illness and mortality, impacting children's development in developing nations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between socioeconomic factors, household resources, and anemia in Gambian children under five.
- To utilize Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to analyze these complex relationships.
Main Methods:
- Employed SEM to analyze data from 8,362 observations from the Demographic Health Survey.
- Included 21 variables categorized into socioeconomic, environmental, and household resource factors.
Main Results:
- Parental educational attainment was a significant predictor of children's hemoglobin levels.
- Key factors influencing anemia included housing location, sanitation, gender, education, water source, marital status, and income.
Conclusions:
- Socioeconomic and household resource factors play a crucial role in children's anemia status.
- Findings offer policy implications for improving child well-being and addressing anemia.
Introduction:
Anemia remains a public health concern globally in industrialized and developing nations, especially for children under five. It is still the leading cause of illness and mortality, which is harmful, especially in children from developing countries. Furthermore, children's emotional, physical, and mental health can be negatively impacted by anemia if it is not addressed promptly. Researchers have unraveled the intricate relationships between components using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).
Objective:
Therefore, using anemia as the main variable, this study intends to use SEM to investigate the association between socioeconomic and household resources and the anemic health status of under-five children in Gambia. The Demographic Health Survey website provided the data for this investigation.
Methods:
Twenty-one factors were included in the observations 8,362 utilized in this study and categorized into socioeconomic factors, child's environmental factors, and household resources. These variables are sex, type of place of residence, marital status, anemia level, type of toilet facility, location of water source, income status, place of residence, month of birth, state, sources of drinking water, and the respondents' highest level of education. The model specification for the SEM model used shows anemia status level as the dependent variable against income status, parent's highest educational level, parent's sex, location of source of water, number of eligible children, state, source of drinking water, parent's marital status, child's age and location of toilet facility of the respondents.
Results:
The results indicate that parental educational attainment significantly influences children's hemoglobin levels. The findings indicate that the following factors significantly affect children's anemia levels: housing location, type of restroom, gender, highest level of education, water source location, marital status, drinking water source, state, number of eligible children, and income status at p-value (p < 0.000) deliberately.
Unique Contribution:
The present study has a unique impact of socio-economic factors and human resources on anemia. It would be helpful to consider factors with policy implications for the betterment of anemia patients' wellbeing.
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