Abstract:
Anemia is a decrease in the total amount of red blood cells in the blood, or a lowered ability of
the blood to carry oxygen. Anemia was caused by nutritional deficiencies, infection, and blood
disorders. The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors for the prevalence of anemia
among under five children. Our study fully relied on secondary data obtained from the 2016
Ethiopian demographic health survey (EDHS). The 2016 EDHS sample was selected using a
stratified, two-stage cluster design. The selection of enumeration areas (EAs) were the first stage
of sampling units. At the first stage the sample included 645 EAs, among these 202 were urban
and 443 were rural areas. Households comprised the second stage of sampling. The lists of
households were served as a sampling frame for the selection of 10641 units in the second stage
of sampling. At the end ignoring missing values the data from 8335 households were selected
for final analysis. We noticed out of 8335 children, 5326 (63.9%) were anemic and remaining
3009 (36.3%) were non-anemic and the prevalence of anemia in region of Somali, Oromia, Afar,
SNNPR and Tigray showed high prevalence than Addis Abeba, Benshangul Gumuz, Gambela,
Dire Dawa. Amhara and Hareri. Binary logistic regression and multi-level logistic regression
models were used to identify risk factors for the prevalence of anemia among children aged less
than five years. The result of the study showed that the region of residence, place of residence,
source of drinking water, wealth index, size of child and age of children significantly predict the
prevalence of anemia among children (p-value≤0.05). However, the remaining; higher education
level parents, religion, marital status and taking iron could not showed a significant effect. The
variation in prevalence of anemia among regional state of Ethiopia was 0.0989781(9.9%). Thus,
we recommended that the Ministry of Health should give special attention to highly exposed
regions, such as Somali, Oromia, Affar, SNNPR and Tigray. We also recommended that
concerned bodies and health institutions should create awareness for families regarding the risk
factors.
