Prevalence of selected factors hypothesised to be associated with anaemia among children, pregnant women and non-pregnant women in India in 2006 and 2016
| Anaemia drivers | Children (n=245 346) | Pregnant women (n=37 165) | Non-pregnant women (n=760 460) | |||
| 2006 | 2016 | 2006 | 2016 | 2006 | 2016 | |
| Immediate determinants | ||||||
| Women’s low BMI, % | 41.8 | 26.3*** | 21.5 | 14.0*** | 35.7 | 22.9*** |
| Maternal anaemia, % | 60.1 | 57.1*** | – | – | – | – |
| Child diarrhoea, % | 9.2 | 9.1 | – | – | – | – |
| Child ARI, % | 5.9 | 2.8*** | – | – | – | – |
| Women’s daily meat and fish consumption, % | 5.7 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 5.1 | 7.0 | 6.1* |
| Women’s weekly meat and fish consumption, % | 31.7 | 41.0*** | 31.6 | 39.8*** | 35.7 | 42.6*** |
| Women’s daily dark green vegetable consumption, % | 61.6 | 46.4*** | 64.1 | 47.5*** | 64.1 | 47.2*** |
| Nutrition and health interventions† | ||||||
| At least 4 ANC visits, % | 33.6 | 48.2*** | 27.8 | 41.8*** | 37.9 | 51.7*** |
| IFA consumption 100 tablets, % | 14.3 | 29.0*** | 12.9 | 25.8*** | 16.0 | 30.9*** |
| Deworming during pregnancy, % | 3.6 | 17.7*** | 3.0 | 14.9*** | 3.8 | 18.4*** |
| Weighed during pregnancy, % | 45.9 | 73.3*** | 39.4 | 68.1*** | 50.0 | 76.0*** |
| Paediatric full immunisation, % | 41.6 | 55.7*** | – | – | – | – |
| Paediatric vitamin A supplementation, % | 15.1 | 57.9*** | – | – | – | – |
| Paediatric IFA, % | 4.5 | 25.9*** | – | – | – | – |
| Paediatric deworming, % | 12.2 | 31.8*** | – | – | – | – |
| ICDS‡—food supplementation, % | 31.1 | 63.6*** | 17.3 | 53.7*** | – | – |
| ICDS‡—health check-up, % | 20.3 | 55.4*** | 11.0 | 44.4*** | – | – |
| ICDS‡—health and nutrition education, % | 21.6 | 54.5*** | 8.5 | 38.6*** | – | – |
| Using bednet, % | 41.3 | 39.1* | 41.2 | 37.6** | 38.6 | 34.3*** |
| Underlying determinants | ||||||
| Household size, n | 6.7 | 6.4*** | 6.0 | 5.7*** | 5.9 | 5.6*** |
| No. of children <5 years, n | 1.6 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Household SES index, n | 3.9 | 5.7*** | 3.5 | 5.3*** | 4.0 | 5.6*** |
| Improved sanitation facilities, % | 22.3 | 40.1*** | 22.1 | 42.1*** | 31.7 | 50.3*** |
| Safe stool disposal, % | 18.6 | 34.2*** | 14.5 | 30.8*** | 21.0 | 36.1*** |
| Scheduled caste/tribe, % | 71.4 | 76.5*** | 71.4 | 76.5*** | 66.8 | 73.2*** |
| Hindu religion, % | 78.7 | 78.4 | 78.8 | 77.3 | 81.2 | 80.5 |
| Muslim religion, % | 16.6 | 16.7 | 17.2 | 17.6 | 13.0 | 13.8 |
| Rural, % | 76.1 | 72.5** | 76.6 | 72.6** | 68.4 | 66.2 |
| Maternal schooling, years | 4.0 | 6.3*** | 4.4 | 7.2*** | 5.0 | 6.8*** |
| Mothers with no schooling, % | 50.0 | 30.7*** | 46.6 | 25.0*** | 40.6 | 28.0*** |
| Mothers with ≥10 years of schooling, % | 16.0 | 30.3*** | 17.7 | 36.2*** | 21.9 | 35.2*** |
| Married before 18 years, % | 60.9 | 38.9*** | 56.6 | 32.6*** | 60.8 | 45.3*** |
| Maternal age, years | 26.7 | 27.2*** | 23.5 | 24.3*** | 29.4 | 30.2*** |
| Other factors | ||||||
| Male child, % | 52.9 | 52.2* | – | – | – | – |
| Child aged 6–23 months, % | 32.6 | 32.9 | ||||
| Child aged 24–59 months, % | 67.4 | 67.1 | – | – | – | – |
Significant changes from 2006 to 2016 were tested using the Wald test from linear regression models, adjusted for sampling weights: ***p<0.001, **p<0.01, *p<0.05.
†Variables related to the most recent pregnancy.
‡ICDS—food supplementation, health check-up, and health and nutrition counselling in children model includes any of the services during pregnancy, lactation or during early childhood.
ANC, antenatal care; ARI, acute respiratory infection; BMI, Body Mass Index; ICDS, Integrated Child Development Services; IFA, iron and folic acid; SES, social economic status.