Objectives: to highlight the epidemiology of pica among children attending paediatrics outpatient clinic of Menoufiya university hospital. Background: Pica is a persistent eating of non-nutritive substance, which is inappropriate to the developmental level. Numerous etiologies have been proposed to explain pica. Different forms of pica are associated with a high rate of complications and substantial morbidity and mortality. Methods: The prospective study was undertaken at a pediatric outpatient clinic of Menoufiya university hospital. The mothers were interviewed and data were collected. General physical, systemic examination and investigations were done. Anemia was defined as haemoglobin thresholds for age (0.5-4.99 years) is11 g/dl and 11.5 g/dl for age (5.00–11.99 years). Iron depletion was defined as serum ferritin levels of <15 ng/ml. And iron deficiency as serum iron level <50 µg/dl. Hypozincaemia was defined as serum zinc level of<0.6 mg/L. Results: From two thousands and four hundreds children visited pediatrics clinic, of them one hundred and seventy four patients of them were suffering from pica (prevalence of pica was 7.2%). Clay was the material used by 43.1% children (major form of pica in this study) followed by Dust (25.9 %) followed by paper and cigarette (both 4 %). The hemoglobin and serum iron levels, serum ferritin and serum zinc were below the reference range. Conclusion: Prevalence of pica is higher in males, four years or less age, rural residents, bottle feeders, poor nourished children, children came from low socioeconomic families, illiterate housewife mothers. Children with pica had low level of zinc, hemoglobin, iron and ferritin, which confirmed that there is a relationship between pica and iron deficiency anemia and / or hypozincaemia. The children who practice pica are prone to worm infestation.
| Published in | American Journal of BioScience (Volume 2, Issue 4) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15 |
| Page(s) | 147-152 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Anemia, Clay, Hypozincaemia, Iron, Pica, Prevalence
| [1] | Emily R and David R. Pica. In Robert M. Kliegman, Bonita F. Stanton, Joseph W. St.; et al. Nelson Textbook of pediaterics, 19th Edition. Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier Inc 2011;21(2): 70-72. |
| [2] | Khan NZ, Ferdous S, Islam R ; et al . Behaviour problems in young children in rural Bangladesh. J Trop Pediatr 2009; 55(3): 177–182. |
| [3] | Alexader W. and Akos . Geophagia: the history of earth-eating. J R Soc Med 2002; 95:143-146. |
| [4] | Edward A. R., John H. P., and Anne V. Pica Common but Commonly Missed. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 2000; 13(5): 353-358. |
| [5] | Ravinder K. G and Ritu G. Clinical Profile of Pica in Childhood. JK Science 2005; 7:61-63. |
| [6] | Al-Sawaf F B . Pica in children. Iraqi J Med Sci 2004; 3(2): 179-181. |
| [7] | Ibrahim A . Pica in children with tetralogy of Fallot : Report of two cases. Muller J Med Sci Res 2013; 4:122-123. |
| [8] | Moturi N. and Shivoga W A. Geophagia as a risk factor for diarrhea. J Infect Developing Countries 2009; 3(2): 94-98. |
| [9] | Bisi-Johnson M A, Obi C L and Ekosse G E . Microbiological and health related perspectives of geophagia: An overview. African Journal of Biotechnology 2010; 9(19): 5784-5791. |
| [10] | Sunit S , Ravishanker R , Pratibha S ; et al . Low Plasma Zinc and Iron in Pica. Indian Journal of Pediatrics 2003 ; 70:139-142. |
APA Style
Fathia Mohamed El nemer, Doaa Mahmoud Alian, Mona Salah Eldin, Housam Eldin Moustafa Khalil. (2014). Prevalence of Pica among Children Attending Pediatrics Clinic at El-Menoufiya University Hospital. American Journal of BioScience, 2(4), 147-152. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15
ACS Style
Fathia Mohamed El nemer; Doaa Mahmoud Alian; Mona Salah Eldin; Housam Eldin Moustafa Khalil. Prevalence of Pica among Children Attending Pediatrics Clinic at El-Menoufiya University Hospital. Am. J. BioScience 2014, 2(4), 147-152. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15
AMA Style
Fathia Mohamed El nemer, Doaa Mahmoud Alian, Mona Salah Eldin, Housam Eldin Moustafa Khalil. Prevalence of Pica among Children Attending Pediatrics Clinic at El-Menoufiya University Hospital. Am J BioScience. 2014;2(4):147-152. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15,
author = {Fathia Mohamed El nemer and Doaa Mahmoud Alian and Mona Salah Eldin and Housam Eldin Moustafa Khalil},
title = {Prevalence of Pica among Children Attending Pediatrics Clinic at El-Menoufiya University Hospital},
journal = {American Journal of BioScience},
volume = {2},
number = {4},
pages = {147-152},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajbio.20140204.15},
abstract = {Objectives: to highlight the epidemiology of pica among children attending paediatrics outpatient clinic of Menoufiya university hospital. Background: Pica is a persistent eating of non-nutritive substance, which is inappropriate to the developmental level. Numerous etiologies have been proposed to explain pica. Different forms of pica are associated with a high rate of complications and substantial morbidity and mortality. Methods: The prospective study was undertaken at a pediatric outpatient clinic of Menoufiya university hospital. The mothers were interviewed and data were collected. General physical, systemic examination and investigations were done. Anemia was defined as haemoglobin thresholds for age (0.5-4.99 years) is11 g/dl and 11.5 g/dl for age (5.00–11.99 years). Iron depletion was defined as serum ferritin levels of <15 ng/ml. And iron deficiency as serum iron level <50 µg/dl. Hypozincaemia was defined as serum zinc level of<0.6 mg/L. Results: From two thousands and four hundreds children visited pediatrics clinic, of them one hundred and seventy four patients of them were suffering from pica (prevalence of pica was 7.2%). Clay was the material used by 43.1% children (major form of pica in this study) followed by Dust (25.9 %) followed by paper and cigarette (both 4 %). The hemoglobin and serum iron levels, serum ferritin and serum zinc were below the reference range. Conclusion: Prevalence of pica is higher in males, four years or less age, rural residents, bottle feeders, poor nourished children, children came from low socioeconomic families, illiterate housewife mothers. Children with pica had low level of zinc, hemoglobin, iron and ferritin, which confirmed that there is a relationship between pica and iron deficiency anemia and / or hypozincaemia. The children who practice pica are prone to worm infestation.},
year = {2014}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Prevalence of Pica among Children Attending Pediatrics Clinic at El-Menoufiya University Hospital AU - Fathia Mohamed El nemer AU - Doaa Mahmoud Alian AU - Mona Salah Eldin AU - Housam Eldin Moustafa Khalil Y1 - 2014/07/20 PY - 2014 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15 DO - 10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15 T2 - American Journal of BioScience JF - American Journal of BioScience JO - American Journal of BioScience SP - 147 EP - 152 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-0167 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.15 AB - Objectives: to highlight the epidemiology of pica among children attending paediatrics outpatient clinic of Menoufiya university hospital. Background: Pica is a persistent eating of non-nutritive substance, which is inappropriate to the developmental level. Numerous etiologies have been proposed to explain pica. Different forms of pica are associated with a high rate of complications and substantial morbidity and mortality. Methods: The prospective study was undertaken at a pediatric outpatient clinic of Menoufiya university hospital. The mothers were interviewed and data were collected. General physical, systemic examination and investigations were done. Anemia was defined as haemoglobin thresholds for age (0.5-4.99 years) is11 g/dl and 11.5 g/dl for age (5.00–11.99 years). Iron depletion was defined as serum ferritin levels of <15 ng/ml. And iron deficiency as serum iron level <50 µg/dl. Hypozincaemia was defined as serum zinc level of<0.6 mg/L. Results: From two thousands and four hundreds children visited pediatrics clinic, of them one hundred and seventy four patients of them were suffering from pica (prevalence of pica was 7.2%). Clay was the material used by 43.1% children (major form of pica in this study) followed by Dust (25.9 %) followed by paper and cigarette (both 4 %). The hemoglobin and serum iron levels, serum ferritin and serum zinc were below the reference range. Conclusion: Prevalence of pica is higher in males, four years or less age, rural residents, bottle feeders, poor nourished children, children came from low socioeconomic families, illiterate housewife mothers. Children with pica had low level of zinc, hemoglobin, iron and ferritin, which confirmed that there is a relationship between pica and iron deficiency anemia and / or hypozincaemia. The children who practice pica are prone to worm infestation. VL - 2 IS - 4 ER -
Information
Email: