Prevalence of and risk factors for iron deficiency among pregnant women with moderate or severe anaemia in Nigeria: a cross-sectional study (original) (raw)

Background Anaemia during pregnancy could cause adverse outcomes to the woman and the foetus, including anaemic heart failure, prematurity, and intrauterine growth retardation. Iron deficiency is the leading cause of anaemia and oral iron supplementation during pregnancy is widely recommended. However, little focus is directed to dietary intake. This study estimates the contribution of iron deficiency among anaemic pregnant women and examines risk factors including dietary risk factors for iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) in pregnant women with moderate or severe anaemia in Lagos and Kano states, Nigeria.Methods In this cross-sectional study, 11,582 women were screened for anaemia at 20–32 weeks gestation. The 872 who had moderate or severe anaemia (haemoglobin concentration < 10g/dL) were included in this study. Iron deficiency was defined as serum ferritin level < 30ng/mL. We described the sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics of the sample and their self-report of con...