Prevalence of and factors associated with childhood anaemia in remote villages of the Peruvian Amazon: a cross-sectional study and geospatial analysis

ABSTRACT Background Anaemia is a public health problem in Peru. In the Loreto region of the Amazon, ≥50% of children may be anaemic, although insufficient information exists for rural villages. Methods To generate more data about childhood anaemia in the Peruvian Amazon, haemoglobin was measured as part of a trachoma survey in 21 randomly selected villages. All children 1–9 y of age from 30 randomly selected households per village were recruited. Anaemia was classified according to the World Health Organization guidelines and a socio-economic status (SES) index was created for each household using principal component analysis. Spatial autocorrelation was determined using Moran's I and Ripley's K function. Results Of 678 children with complete haemoglobin data, 25.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] 21.2 to 30.1) had mild-or-worse anaemia and 22.1% (95% CI 15.6 to 30.3) had moderate-or-worse anaemia. Mild-or-worse anaemia was more common among children whose primary source of drinking water was surface water (prevalence ratio [PR] 1.26 [95% CI 1.14 to 1.40], p