TY - JOUR

T1 - Early home-based recognition of anaemia via general danger signs, in young children, in a malaria endemic community in north-east Tanzania

AU - Ringsted, Frank M

AU - Bygbjerg, Ib C

AU - Samuelsen, Helle

N1 - Keywords: Algorithms; Anemia; Health Education; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Longitudinal Studies; Malaria; Mothers; Prospective Studies; Tanzania

PY - 2006

Y1 - 2006

N2 - BACKGROUND: Ethnographic studies from East Africa suggest that cerebral malaria and anaemia are not classified in local knowledge as malaria complications, but as illnesses in their own right. Cerebral malaria 'degedege' has been most researched, in spite of anaemia being a much more frequent complication in infants, and not much is known on how this is interpreted by caretakers. Anaemia is difficult to recognize clinically, even by health workers. METHODS: Ethnographic longitudinal cohort field study for 14 months, with monthly home-visits in families of 63 newborn babies, identified by community census, followed throughout April - November 2003 and during follow-up in April-May 2004. Interviews with care-takers (mostly mothers) and observational studies of infants and social environment were combined with three haemoglobin (Hb) screenings, supplemented with reports from mothers after health facility use. RESULTS: General danger signs, reported by mothers, e.g. infant unable to breast-feed or sit, too weak to be carried on back - besides of more alarming signs such as sleeping all time, loosing consciousness or convulsing - were well associated with actual or evolving moderate to severe anaemia (Hb

AB - BACKGROUND: Ethnographic studies from East Africa suggest that cerebral malaria and anaemia are not classified in local knowledge as malaria complications, but as illnesses in their own right. Cerebral malaria 'degedege' has been most researched, in spite of anaemia being a much more frequent complication in infants, and not much is known on how this is interpreted by caretakers. Anaemia is difficult to recognize clinically, even by health workers. METHODS: Ethnographic longitudinal cohort field study for 14 months, with monthly home-visits in families of 63 newborn babies, identified by community census, followed throughout April - November 2003 and during follow-up in April-May 2004. Interviews with care-takers (mostly mothers) and observational studies of infants and social environment were combined with three haemoglobin (Hb) screenings, supplemented with reports from mothers after health facility use. RESULTS: General danger signs, reported by mothers, e.g. infant unable to breast-feed or sit, too weak to be carried on back - besides of more alarming signs such as sleeping all time, loosing consciousness or convulsing - were well associated with actual or evolving moderate to severe anaemia (Hb

U2 - 10.1186/1475-2875-5-111

DO - 10.1186/1475-2875-5-111

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 17116250

VL - 5

SP - 111

JO - Malaria Journal

JF - Malaria Journal

SN - 1475-2875

ER -