Background:

anemia is defined as a reduction in hemoglobin concentration below the values recorded in healthy persons. In Cuba, as in the rest of the world, iron deficiency anemia is a health problem, with a high frequency in pediatric patients.

Objective:

to identify within a group of biological risk factors, which ones have a greater association with iron deficiency anemia in infants hospitalized in the pediatric ward of the Luis Díaz Soto Hospital.

Methods:

a descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out. The universe was made up of 384 infants and the sample was made up of 105 patients. A simple random sampling was made. In order to identify within a group of biological risk factors on the appearance of iron-deficiency anemia, unvaried analysis was carried out by means of the X2 independence test. The OR was calculated for those variables which, according to the X2 test, were statistically significant.

Results:

prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia was found in infants admitted in more than half of the studied sample (61 %). It was determined that exclusive breastfeeding for less than six months (OR: 2,1; IC: 1,9-2,5) and complementary feeding (OR: 1,5; IC: 1,3-2,4) were risk factors for iron-deficiency anemia in the infant admitted.

Conclusions:

the prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia in infants admitted to the pediatric ward of the Luis Díaz Soto Hospital during the period May 2019 to May 2020 is high and is among the expected values in hospitalized infants.

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