Abstract:
Background: Anemia is a highly common hematologic complication among patients with
tuberculosis and is a strong risk factor for mortality. In spite of its known detrimental effects,
previous studies in Ethiopia reported only the magnitude of tuberculosis-associated anemia
but the contributing factors have not been measured and remain unknown in the study area.
Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the magnitude of anemia and
associated factors among adults with tuberculosis.
Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study design was conducted from March 01-
April 25, 2019 using pretested structured questionnaire among 382 newly diagnosed and ontreatment
adults with tuberculosis in 4 public governmental health facilities of Jigjiga town.
Data collection was done by trained nurses and laboratory technicians. A systematic random
sampling technique was used to select study participants. To measure the hemoglobin level of
each patient, capillary blood sample was taken by lancing the middle finger tip of a patient
using a HemoCue® Hb 301 analyzer. Data clearing, editing, coding, double data check and
double data entry was made using EPIDATA 3.02. Then the data was exported into SPSS
version 21 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were done to
identify factors associated with anemia. All variables with p-value less than 0.25 in bivariate
analysis were included into the final model and level of statistical significance was declared
at p-value less than or equal to 0.05.
Result: The overall magnitude of anemia was 39% [95%CI: (34%, 44.2%)]. Age>64 years old
[AOR=5.83, 95%CI (2.36, 14.39)] , females [AOR=3.14, 95%CI(1.22, 8.11)], patients unable
to read and write [AOR=3.56, 95%(1.63, 7.77)], underweight patients [AOR=7.76,
95%CI(3.39, 17.77)], anti-tuberculosis treatment-naive[AOR=3.11, 95%CI (1.59, 6.06)] and
tuberculosis symptom greater than or equal to 1month [AOR=2.62, 95%CI(1.07, 6.38)] were
found significantly associated with anemia.
Conclusion and recommendation: the magnitude of anemia among adults with tuberculosis
in the study area was found to be high (39%). Adults with tuberculosis who are; underweight,
old in age, female sex, anti-tuberculosis treatment-naive, having low educational status and
tuberculosis symptom greater than or equal to 1month should be carefully screened and
treated for anemia.
