Thalassemia and hemoglobinopathy prevalence in a community-based sample in Sylhet, Bangladesh

Table 1 Background characteristics of women and children in the FAARM study population in Sylhet, Bangladesh

Characteristics	Women		Children
	n = 900		n = 395
	freq	%	freq	%
Woman's age
15–19 years	108	12.0	–	–
20–24 years	340	37.8	–	–
25–29 years	327	36.3	–	–
30–38 years	125	13 9	–	–
Child's age
6–11 months	–	–	85	21.5
12–23 months	–	–	168	42.5
24–37 months	–	–	142	36.0
Woman's education^a
None	154	17.1	73	18.5
Part of primary school	194	21.6	77	19.5
Completed primary school	213	23.7	91	23.0
Part of secondary school	290	32.2	133	33.7
Completed secondary school	27	3.0	13	3.3
Higher secondary school certificate and beyond	22	2.4	8	2.0
Household religion
Muslim	648	72.0	281	71.1
Hindu	252	28.0	114	28.9
Household wealth quintile^b
Poorest	213	23.7	89	22.5
Second	202	22.4	94	23.8
Third	186	20.7	71	18.0
Fourth	170	18.9	88	22.3
Richest	129	14.3	53	13.4
Anemia^c
Non-pregnant women/children
None	525	68.4	200	50.6
Mild	158	20.6	108	27.3
Moderate	84	10.9	85	21.5
Severe	1	0.1	2	0.5
Pregnant women
None	101	76.5	–	–
Mild	20	15.2	–	–
Moderate	10	7.6	–	–
Severe	1	0.8	–	–

^aIn the child column, women's education refers to the education level of the biological mother of the child
^bHousehold wealth quintiles were calculated from the full FAARM population
^cWe used the following anemia cut-offs: non-pregnant women (mild: Hb 11–11.9 g/dl; moderate: 8.0–10.9 g/dL; severe: Hb < 8.0 g/dl), pregnant women in the first and third trimester (mild: Hb 10–10.9 g/dl; moderate: 7.0–9.9 g/dl; severe: Hb < 7.0 g/dl), pregnant women in the second trimester (mild: Hb 9.5–10.4 g/dl; moderate: 6.5–9.4 g/dl; severe: Hb < 6.5 g/dl), and children (mild: Hb 10–10.9 g/dl; moderate: 7.0–9.9 g/dl; severe: Hb < 7.0 g/dl)
FAARM: Food and Agricultural Approaches to Reducing Malnutrition

ISSN: 1750-1172