Anaemia: Children
(asked on 6th January 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many children in England were diagnosed as anaemic or iron deficient in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.
There are no figures available centrally for how many children in England were diagnosed as anaemic or iron deficient in each of the last 10 years.
However, the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) UK report has figures for the proportion of children in the United Kingdom with haemoglobin concentrations below a certain level that indicate anaemia, but are not necessarily diagnosed.
Lower limits for haemoglobin have been set by the World Health Organization and are endorsed by the Scientific Advisory Committee for Nutrition.
The figures below for the UK cover years 1, 2, 3 and 4 (combined) of the NDNS Rolling Programme (2008/09 to 2011/12).
The estimated proportion of children in the UK with a haemoglobin concentration below the lower limits was:
Age Group | % below the lower limits |
1.5 to three years | 12.9 |
four to ten years (boys) | 3.1 |
11 to 18 years (boys) | 1.8 |
four to ten years (girls) | 5.7 |
11 to 18 years (girls) | 7.4 |