Anemia in Cameroon: A Social Approach

Viewed as hidden hunger, anemia is an indicator of poor nutrition and health status, especially for African pre-school children. Several actions are being carried out to combat anemia in Africa, without success. The fundamental step to improve this situation is to determine 1) mothers’ knowledge regarding anemia (symptoms/signs and etiologies), and 2) their attitudes towards anemia. The present effort was to determine 1) and 2) on mothers (n = 152) with children (1 - 5 years) through questionnaire. Data showed that the less educated the mother was, the more she gave the wrong definition of anemia. When these mothers have anemic children, 129 go to the hospital, 34 give grenadine (sweet soda), 14 go to the traditional healer, and 6 give the various decoctions. Our results showed that less-educated mothers had wrong anemia management, such as attachment to a visual logic that assimilates blood to food with red coloring. The actions must directly involve these mothers and the traditional healers to improve this situation.