Anemia and associated factors among highly active anti retroviral therapy experienced human immuno deficiency viruspositive children in hawassa university comprehensive specialized hospital

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.