determination of frequency of anemia related to ıron, vitamin B12 and folate deficiency in pediatri patiens in pediatrics service

Introduction and Objective: Anemia is a common public health problem in the world and causes significant consequences by affecting human health. Anemia can affect people of all ages, but the most affected are preschool children and pregnant women. Nutritional anemia is the most common cause of anemia. Nutritional anemia occurs in the absence of micronutrients such as iron, vitaminB12, folate, zinc and copper. Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in childhood. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of nutritional anemia in childrenstaying in the service without chronic renal failure (CRF) and primary bone marrow disease. Material and Methods: Our study was a cross-sectional study preformed on 879 patients who were hospitalized in Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine Hospital pediatrics service between January and June 2018. Children with primary bone marrow disease and CRF were excluded and hemogram, reticulocyte, vitamin B12, folate, ferritin, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were determined for the remaning 131 patients. Their height and weight were measured and evaluated against the percentile growth curves of Turkish children according. Findings: The rate of anemia was found to be 54% in 879 patients who were hospitalized. The rate of anemia was found to be 27% after exclusion of patients withCRF and primary bone marrow disease. 40% of the patients included in the study were in the 0-2 age group.There was no significant difference between hemoglobin, reticulocyte, iron, ferritin, vitamin B12 and folate levels (p> 0.05) of female and male patients. No nutritional deficiency was detected in 55% of the patients, while 37% had iron deficiency, 3% had vitamin B12 deficiency and 13% had folate deficiency. The mean erythrocyte volume (MCV) was low (micrositer) in 44.3%, MCV was normal (normositer) in 48.9%, and MCV was high (macrocytic) in 6.9% of the patients. 55% of the patients included in the study were patients who were admitted to the service due to acute infections. Result: The most common nutritional anemia is iron deficiency anemia. One can be misled to inaccurate negative or positive results by evaluatingthe deficiency of vitamin B12 with only serum vitamin B12 levels. It can be misleading to use MCV leves as an auxiliary parameter in the recognition of vitamin B12 and folate deficiency anemia. Anemia detected during acute infections which is not accompanied by any nutritional deficiencies can be evaluated as acute infection anemia. However, in these patients, anemia parameters should be re-evaluated after infection. Keywords: Anemia, Nutritional Anemia