Research Article Magnitude of Anemia and Associated Factors among Pediatric HIV/AIDS Patients Attending Zewditu Memorial Hospital ART Clinic, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Copyright © 2015 Hylemariam Mihiretie et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Anemia is one of the most commonly observed hematological abnormalities and an independent prognostic marker of HIV disease.The aim of this study was to determine the magnitude of anemia and associated factors among pediatric HIV/AIDS patients attending Zewditu Memorial Hospital (ZMH) ART Clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among pediatric HIV/AIDS patients of ZewdituMemorial Hospital (ZMH) between August 05, 2013, andNovember 25, 2013.A total of 180 childrenwere selected consecutively. Stool specimenwas collected andprocessed.A structured questionnairewas used to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics and associated risk factors. Data were entered into EpiData 3.1.1. and were analyzed using SPSS version 16 software. Logistic regressions were applied to assess any association between explanatory factors and outcome variables. Results. The total prevalence of anemia was 22.2 % where 21 (52.5%), 17 (42.5%), and 2 (5.0%) patients had mild, moderate, and severe anemia.There was a significant increase in severity and prevalence of anemia in those with CD4+ T cell counts below 350 cells