Prevalence and trend of malaria with anemia among under-five children in Jasikan District, Ghana

Background: Malaria remains a major killer of children under-five, claiming the life of one child every two minutes globally. Despite the several interventions to reduce malaria and anemia, these diseases remain global public concerns. Aims: This study assessed the prevalence and trend of malaria and anemia in children under-five years from 2012 to 2016. Subjects and Methods: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among children under-five with malaria and anemia who received care at the hospital in Jasikan town, Ghana from 2012 to 2016. We computed descriptive statistics to describe the data. STATA version 14 was used to carry out the analyses.  Binary logistic regression was used to determine the strength of association at a 5% significance level (P<0.05). Results: Out of 30,082 malaria cases, 835 were with anemia from 2012 to 2016. This study found an overall proportion of malaria with anemia as 28 per 1,000. The year 2014 recorded the highest proportion of 38 per 1,000 malaria cases of malaria with anemia. Overall, the prevalence rate of malaria and anemia cases were found to be 61.5% and 4.4% respectively. Children within 24-35 months’ age group contributed the highest (28.3%) and 0-11 months accounted for the lowest (12.9%) malaria with anemia cases. The majority of malaria with anemia cases 63.6% occurred in the rainy season, between June to July. Conclusions: The proportion of malaria with anemia was high among children under-five and most children having malaria with anemia live in rural areas and during the rainy season.