Abstract:
Background: Hematological complications have been documented to be one of the most
common causes of morbidity and mortality in HIV positive children.Anemiais oneof the
common hematological complications among children on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy
(HAART) and the magnitude of anemia was associated with different factor such as
opportunistic infection and the side effect of ART drug itself.Anemia has been identified as one
of the predictors of early mortality in a cohort of HIV-infected children receiving HAART.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anemia and its associated
factor amongHAART experienced HIV positive children.
Methods:Institutional-based crosses sectional study was conducted in Hawassa University
comprehensive specialized hospital from February 15 to June, 15 2017.A total of 273HAART
experienced children were included in the study. Socio-demographic characteristics and clinical
data were collected using questionnaire based interview. After the interview, a detailed review of
the medical records of each study participant was done using checklist. About 4 milliliters of
venous blood sample was drawn from each study participant. The presence of Anemia was
determined by hematology auto analyzer. Data was entered in to Epidata and analyzed by using
SPSS version 20 software. Binary and multivariate logistic regression is used and Statistical
significance was declared at P- value<0.05.
Result: The overall prevalence of anemia among study participants was 11.4%.Normocytic
normochromic anemia (64.5%) took the higher proportion. In this study age<7(AOR=3, CI: 1.2-
7.5, p=0.02), being rural dweller (AOR=2.6, CI=1.0-6.6, p=0.042) and having a viral load of
>150 copies/ml (AOR=3.4, CI=1.36-8.3, p=0.009) were identified as determinants of anemia
among study participants.
Conclusion and Recommendation:Thisstudy has shown that anemia is prevalent in HAART
experienced children. Thereforeregular follow up management should be emphasized for those
HAART experienced children who are anemic.Further study will be very important on the root
causes and complications of anemia among anemic HAART experienced children.
