Obesity in Preschool-Aged Children with Sickle Cell Anemia: Emerging Nutritional Challenge in a Resource Limited Setting.

Background: The burden of childhood obesity is increasing in most developing countries particularly in the urban areas owing to globalization; and children with sickle cell anemia (SCA) in such environment do not live in isolation. The study is aimed at determining the prevalence of obesity in younger children with SCA.

Methods: A consecutive recruitment of 58 children with SCA aged between 1 year and 5 years 4 months (subjects) and their age and sex matched controls selected using multistage sampling technique were carried out. The weight and height of the children were obtained using standard equipment. The WHO Anthro and Anthro-Plus software were used for analyzing the nutritional status of the children based on standard deviation (z-scores). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 19.0 while the level of significance was set at p < 0.05.

Results: The mean BMI for the subjects was 15.38 ± 1.93 (range from 11.50-20.80) and 17.10 ± 2.28 (range from 13.4-23.20) in the controls. Overweight (z-score > + 1 ≤ 2) and obesity (z score >+2) were recorded in 10 (17.2%) and 2 (3.4%) of the subjects while in the controls overweight and obesity were observed in 16 (27.6%) and 13 (22.4%), respectively (p = 0.000).

Conclusions: Obesity and overweight is becoming prevalent among children with SCA and so awareness and preventive health education about obesity should be created among caregivers of children with sickle cell anemia in our setting to avert its possible complications.