Anaemia As A Risk For Infectious Diseases Among Children In Bihar (India)

The present study aim is to analyze the association between anaemia and infectious diseases - diarrhoea among children under five years in Bihar (India) relation with certain background characteristics of mothers using the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3, 2005-06 ). The highest prevalence of anaemia is found in Bihar (Any anaemia -78 percent) as compared to other states of India. However, sever is just 2 percent but moderate is 47percent and mild anaemia level is 30 percent. It is observed that about 82.4 percent of children who had diarrhoea in last two weeks are anaemic which is quite high as compared to those children who are not anaemic. According to mother’s background characteristics, proportion of children suffered from diarrhoea is higher for those who are living in rural areas, belongs from poor household and have unimproved toilet facility. The odd ratio shows the probability of children suffered from diarrhoea in last two weeks are significantly higher among urban Muslim male children who are anaemic and could not access the improve source of toilet facility.