Anaemia is prevalent among children in developing countries. The main objective of this study was to assess the association between health insurance membership and anaemia among Ghanaian children under-five years. Health insurance membership was found to be a significant predictor of anaemia among children under-five years. Health insurance membership is a protective factor against anaemia among children under-five years.
In the quest to eradicate anaemia among children, stakeholders would have to review the benefit package of the National Health Insurance Scheme coupled with prioritizing anaemia prevention interventions among more vulnerable children.
Evidence from Ghana. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The authors confirm they did not have any special access or privileges to the data that other researchers would not have. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Anaemia is a global public health problem.
Anaemia is prevalent among children under-five years, especially in developing countries [ 1 , 2 ]. In this study, anaemia refers to haemoglobin levels below or equal to Anaemia in children is mainly caused by iron deficiency and other nutritional deficiencies, such as folate, Vitamin A and B 12 [ 3 ]. Some of the symptoms of anaemia include dizziness, paleness of skin, eyes and palms and body tension [ 4 ]. Anaemia in children can lead to cognitive, physical and social impairments.
These impairments can affect academic performance and work capacity in adulthood [ 5 ]. In addition, anaemia can lead to low immunity and growth weight, fatigue, difficulty with concentration, lethargy, increase susceptibility to infection and death [ 6 , 7 ]. Globally, about million of children under-five years are anaemic.
