Background: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a worldwide public problem, the incidence and prevalence of which has increased in recent years in both developed and developing countries including Tanzania. Anemia, being a major health problem in Tanzania, is also a major co-morbidity of CKD patients and it common in all stages but becomes more pronounced at the latter stages of kidney failure. The causes of anemia are multifactorial ranging from erythropoietin deficiency to nutritional anemia due to iron deficiency, vitamin B12 and folate deficiency. However, erythropoietin deficiency is the most significant cause of anemia in CKD. Anemia has direct adverse effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD) consequences, such as left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and accelerates progression of CKD. As a result, patients with anemia due to CKD are at increased risk of hospitalization with increased length of hospital stay, reduced quality of life and increased mortality.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of anemia and its associated factors in patients CKD and factors associated with anemia in patient CKD admitted at BMC from January 2017 to December 2019.

Methodology: A hospital based retrospective cross sectional study was carried out among CKD patients at Bugando medical centre a zonal referral hospital in Mwanza region. The target population for this study was patients with CKD admitted at BMC from January 2017 to December 2019. Those who meet the inclusion criteria were enrolled using a detailed checklist and analysis was done using SPSS.

Results: 115 patients with chronic kidney disease were enrolled in this study. All were of African origin with mean 44.4+14.6 years and 58.3% were males. Majority of study subjects (94%) were in advanced CKD stages (stage 4 and 5) and overall prevalence of anemia was (94.8%) defined using WHO criteria. 63(54.8%) study participants had moderate anemia and 45(39.1%) had severe anemia.

Conclusion: Anemia is very common among patients presenting with kidney disease. These patients require a thorough evaluation to identify and correct causes of anemia other than erythropoietin deficiency.