Özet:

Objective: This study was planned to investigate the prevalence and etiology of anemia in Syrian refugee children. Material and Methods: This retrospective study included all 266 Syrian refugee children aged 6 months to 18 years without any chronic disease who applied to the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology outpatient clinic of Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University (KSU) between January 2015 and September 2018. The patients were divided into 4 groups according to their age: 6 months-59 months, 5-11 years, 12-14 years, and 15-18 years. Age-specific cut-off values of hemoglobin concentrations determined by the World Health Organization to define and classify anemia in these age groups were used. Results: Anemia was detected in 111 (41.7%) of 266 (89 female, 177 male) Syrian refugee children included in the study. Anemia was detected 80 (54.4%) of children in the 6 months-59 months age group, 22 (29.3%) of children in the 5-11 age group, 6 (24.0%) of children in the 12-14 age group, and 3 (15.8%) of the children in the 15-18 age group (p <0.001). The prevalence of anemia was 48.0% (n=85) among male children compared to 29.2% (n=26) among females (p=0.003). 14.4% (n=16) of the children had mild anemia, 55.9% (n=62) had moderate and 29.7% (n=33) had severe anemia (p<0.001). 64.9% of children with anemia had iron deficiency anemia (IDA), 16.2% had thalassemia minor, 8.1% had vitamin B12 deficiency, 7.2% had Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, 1.8% had hereditary spherocytosis, 0.9% had thalassemia major and 0.9% had autoimmune hemolytic anemia. The most common type of anemia was IDA (64.9%, n =72; p<0.001). 73.6% (n=53) of the children with IDA were in the 6-59 months group (p<0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study reveal that the prevalence of anemia, especially iron deficiency anemia, is high in Syrian refugee children and it has been concluded that screening of anemia and iron supplementation should be done in these children.

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