Microcytic and Malarial Anaemia Prevalence in Urban Children ≤15 Years in the Mount Cameroon Area: A Cross-Sectional Study on Risk Factors

Table 1

Characteristics of the 566 participants enrolled in the study.

Parameter	Total
% (n)	100 (566)
Gender
Female	52.8 (299)
Male	47.2 (267)
Age group in years
1–5	51.4 (291)
6–10	24.9 (141)
11–15	23.7 (134)
Mean age (SD) in years	6.4 (4.5)
Mean height (SD) in cm	112.6 (28.4)
Mean weight (SD) in kg	23.7 (14.6)
Mean Hb conc. in g/dL	10.4 (2.0)
Sociodemographic factors
Altitude of residence
Lowland	61.5 (348)
Highland	38.5 (218)
Point of presentation
Community	36.7(208)
Hospital	63.3 (358)
Health district
Buea	37.5 (212)
Limbe	62.5 (354)
Age of household head (years)^a	N = 407
≤25	3.9 (16)
26–35	28.5 (116)
36–50	44.2 (180)
>50	23.3 (95)
Education level of household head
Primary	23.3 (132)
Secondary	40.6 (230)
Tertiary	31.6 (179)
No formal	4.4 (25)
Family size
≤5	50.5 (286)
6–10	43.8 (248)
>10	5.7 (32)
Clinical factors
Mean temperature (SD) in °C	37.1 (1.1)
Malaria parasite prevalence	27.7 (157)
Fever prevalence	27.7 (157)
Prevalence of inflammation	58.4 (211)
Anaemia prevalence	68.7 (389)
Microcytosis	48.9 (277)
Malnutrition	15.2 (86)

^aCalculated for 407 participants.