Low prevalence of anemia in children aged 19 to 72 months in Chile

Background. In 1974/75, the prevalence of anemia in Chilean preschoolers was 18.8%. Since 2000, the Chilean Ministry of Health has combated anemia through the delivery of iron-fortified milk by the National Complementary Feeding Program (NCFP). Objective. To determine the prevalence of anemia in children aged 19 to 72 months who are beneficiaries of the NCFP. Methods. A cross-sectional representative sample of 224 beneficiaries of the NCFP aged 19 to 72 months from the Santiago and Valparaiso regions was recruited. Results. The mean (+/- SD) hemoglobin concentration was 12.3 +/- 1.0 g/dL. Four percent of all children studied were anemic. In simple linear regression analysis, it was observed that hemoglobin concentration was positively correlated with age (r = 0.23, p = .001). There was no association between hemoglobin concentration and duration of breastfeeding (r = -0.12, p = .175). The prevalence of anemia among the 69% of children consuming iron-fortified milk delivered by NCFP was 2.6%, as compared with 7.1% among children not consuming iron-fortified milk (p = 0.227). Consumption of iron-fortified milk did not show a positive signcant relationship with hemoglobin concentration (r = 0.063, p = .529). Similarly, multiple logistic regression did not show an association between consumption of fortified milk and anemia, after adjusting for sex, age, and breastfeeding (p = .150; OR = 0.98; 95% CI, 0.95 to 0.10). Conclusions. In 2009 anemia was riot a public health problem in Chilean children aged 19 to 72 months from Santiago and Valparaiso.