Estado nutricional y anemia por deficiencia de hierro en niños atendidos en el Centro de Salud Rocafuerte en la provincia de Manabí, Ecuador

Abstract

The health of children is of fundamental importance. As today’s children are the citizens of tomorrow’s world, their survival, protection and development are the prerequisite for the future development of humanity. The objective of this research was to determine the nutritional status and iron deficiency anemia in children attended at the Rocafuerte Health Center in the province of Manabí, Ecuador. The sample size was a total of 172: 94 boys and 77 girls. To analyze the nutritional status, it was necessary to perform an anthropometric evaluation. The instrument to collection information were questionnaires validated. The results show that the nutritional status as a function of weight/height was 7% underweight, 84.9% normal weight, 4.7% overweight and 3.5% obese. As for hemoglobin values, normality predominated, with an average of 11.9±0.9. Only 19% suffer from mild anemia since the hemoglobin parameters were between 10.00-10.9 g / dl, in these cases. In conclusion, the Ecuadorian children under study have a normal nutritional status (89.0 and 84.9%) and only a very small percentage show malnutrition due to deficit and excess. As for hemoglobin values, normality predominated.