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Epidemiology
Research
Iron deficiency, its epidemiological features and feeding practices among infants aged 12 months in Qatar: a cross-sectional study
  1. Abdul Jaleel A Latif Zainel1,
  2. Sherif R Omar Osman2,3,
  3. Sadriya Mohammed S Al-Kohji4,
  4. Nagah A Selim3,5
  1. 1 Clinical Affairs, Primary Health Care Corporation, Doha, Qatar
  2. 2 Tropical Health, Alexandria University High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria, Egypt
  3. 3 Family and Community Medicine, Primary Health Care Corporation, Doha, Qatar
  4. 4 Service Development, Primary Health Care Corporation, Doha, Qatar
  5. 5 Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
  1. Correspondence to Dr Abdul Jaleel A Latif Zainel; azainel{at}phcc.gov.qa

Abstract

Objectives To estimate the magnitude of anaemia, iron deficiency (ID), iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) and to explore epidemiological features of ID and feeding practices among infants aged 12 months in Qatar.

Setting Well baby clinics in 14 randomly selected primary healthcare centres covering all geographical areas on the national level.

Participants Three hundred and six (163 male and 143 female) infants of all nationalities were enrolled. Mothers were asked to complete a predesigned interview questionnaire and infants were blood tested for anaemia, ID and IDA.

Outcome measures Cut-off point used to diagnose anaemia was haemoglobin <11.1 g/dL, and to diagnose ID, serum ferritin <6 ug/L with normal C reactive protein.

Results Prevalence of anaemia was 23.5%, ID was 9.2% and IDA was 7.8%. ID was more prevalent among non-Qatari infants compared with Qatari (10.9% vs1.7%, p=0.029), more prevalent among infants born to housewives and to families of low income (p≤0.05). With regard to feeding practice, ID was higher in infants who continued breastfeeding until the age of 1 year and among those who never took infant formula milk (p≤0.05). Mothers who received infant feeding counselling had less ID occurrence among their infants compared with their counterparts who did not receive such counselling (4.2%vs13.4%, p=0.005).

Conclusion Although ID and IDA among infants in Qatar are less prevalent compared with many developing countries, still further efforts are needed for improvement towards more developed countries. Efforts should be contextualised and should target the key epidemiological features with special emphasis on infant feeding and infant feeding counselling to mothers.

  • iron deficiency
  • anemia
  • prevalence
  • feeding
  • 12 months infants
  • Qatar

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020271

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors AJALZ, NAS and SMSA-K designed the study and wrote the primary proposal. AJALZ and SMSA-K managed data collection and fieldwork. SROO and AJALZ did literature review, data analysis, results interpretation and wrote the discussion. AJALZ, SROO and NAS drafted and revised the manuscript. AJALZ finalised and submitted the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Parental/guardian consent obtained.

    • Ethics approval Appropriate approvals obtained from the Arab Board of Medical Specialization, Institutional Review Board of HMC and the PHCC Research Committee.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No additional data are available.