Abstract

Objective: Anemia is defined based on low blood hemoglobin concentration and the worldwide prevalence of anemia is estimated as high as 24.8% according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Today health systems are facing the problems. and medical issues of an ever- growing  refugee population. This study was planned to investigate nutritional and iron deficiency anemia in immigrant and refugee children.

Material and Methods: In this study immigrant and refugee patients aged 0-18 years who applied to the Pediatric  Clinics of Tepecik Training and Research Hospital for any reason between the years 2012-2018 were retrospectively evaluated.  Patients who were admitted to the hospital for any reason and whose hematological parameters were coded were included in the study.

Results: Study population consisted of 4840 cases including 2234 (46.2%) girls and mostly (n=4793:99.0%) Syrians .Mean age at admission was found as 47.67±57.79 (0-226) months. Mean values for various parametres were as follows: hemoglobin (Hb) (10.8±1.5 gr/dL), hematocrit (Hct) (32.8±4.3%), MCV (75.9±9.6 fL) , RDW (14.9±2.5%), serum iron (46.41±36.6 μg/dL), iron binding capacity (IBC) (379.52±75.98 g/dL), transferrin saturation (TS) (11.95±9.7%),  serum ferritin ( 94.5±452μg/L). Hemoglobin levels were ≤ 10 gr/dL in 331 (6.8%) and ≤ 8 gr/dL in 83 (1.71%) cases. Biochemical parametres of iron status could not be assessed in all patients. Serum iron (n=838), IBC (n=748), TS (n= 748), and ferritin (n= 737) were evaluated in indicated number of patients. Menzter, Shine&Lal, and England indexes were calculated to evaluate the iron deficiency parameters of patients with lower age-adjusted MCV values. Total number of 1525 (incl. 714[46.8%] girls) cases had lower limit of normal MCV values and Menzter index of > 13. There was a significant relationship between MCV, IBC (p=0.033, r=-0.124) and TS (p=0.000, r=-0.232). While MCV was in the lower limit of normal and there were 1934 (886 girls) with Shine index of > 1530, and no relationship was found between MCV and any iron parameters. A total of 1277 patients had a England index of > 0 and a correlation was found only between MCV and TS saturation (p=0.001 and r=0.222).

Conclusion: Although our study had a retrospective design and inadequate data, it is noteworthy in that it has determined the prevalence  of anemia in this population.

Keywords: immgrant, child, anemia

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Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Orbatu D, Alaygut D, Önder Siviş Z, Pakdemirli A, Malbora B. Evaluation of Nutritional Anemia in Middle Eastern Immigrant and Refugee Children. Turk J Pediatr Dis [Internet]. 2020 May 29 [cited 2025 Aug. 23];14(3):244-8. Available from: https://turkjpediatrdis.org/article/view/692