Interruption in anemia treatment increases prevalence: a comparison before and during the Covid 19 pandemic in a High Andean province of Peru

Abstract

Introduction: anemia in the world increased during the Covid-19 pandemic; uninterrupted treatment decreases its prevalence.Objective: to determine the relationship between access to treatment and prevalence of anemia before and during the pandemic in children under 5 years of age in the province of Angaraes - Peru. Method: relational research, correlational, cross-sectional design, using data from the Ministry of Health His Report and SIEN through a registration form validated by experts. For access to treatment the population was 771 and 903 children, for prevalence (3651 and 3284), (3202 and 2754) children; normality was ruled out by kolmogorof Smirnov, Spearman's Rho and Mann-Whitney U (95%CI) were applied. Results: before the pandemic, 46,7 % accessed treatment without interruption, 19,5 % with one month of interruption and 8,2 % six months; during the pandemic it increased to 27,2 % without interruption, 23,3 % with one month of interruption and 19,5 % six months; conditioning an increase in prevalence of 4,5 % between 2020 and 2021; the mean prevalence before was 35 % (95%CI: 31,2 % - 38,5 %); the mean prevalence before the pandemic was 35 % (95%CI: 31,2 % - 38.8%) and during was 40,6 % (CI95%: 36,6 % - 44,2 %); with an error of 0,005 there is a relationship between access to treatment and prevalence, the Rho Spearman value 0,115 indicates a low relationship; with a p value of 0,000 there is a difference in prevalence before and after. Conclusion: there is a low intensity relationship between access to treatment and prevalence of anemia, the latter being higher during the pandemic