Assessment of the Prevalence of Anemia and Its Associated Risk Factors among Pregnant Women in Chiro Referral Hospital, West Hararghe Zone: Ethiopia (original) (raw)

2019, SSRG international journal of medical science

Background: Anemia is a significant public health problem in developing countries, particularly in pregnant women. It refers to a condition in which the hemoglobin content of the blood is lower than normal. In developing countries, the cause of anemia during pregnancy is multi-factorial and includes nutritional deficiencies. It is associated with an increased risk of maternal and prenatal morbidity and mortality. In order to design an intervention for prevention of anemia in pregnancy, determination of its magnitude and identifying associated risk factors for anemia are paramount importance. Objectives: To determine the magnitude and factors associated with anemia during pregnancy among mothers attending antenatal care at Chiro Referral Hospital antenatal care clinic from September 2017 to January 2019. Methods: Cross sectional study design was used .The study participants were selected using systematic sampling technique from their sequence of antenatal care visit in the period of study, and associated risk factors data were collected using structured questionnaire by trained antenatal care service providers. Level of haemoglobin was determined. Descriptive and analytical statistics were computed using SPSS version 20. Chi-square-the analytical statistics was used to identify predictor variables associated with the dependent variable-anemia. Result: The overall prevalence of anemia in this study population was 57.1%. Two hundred twenty two cases (57.2%) showed mild type of anemia followed by moderate anemia 156 (40.2%) and the remaining 10 (2.6%) were having severe anemia. Iron supplementation [p-value <2.2e-16], trimester[ pvalue 0.002], abortion p-value 0.053], birth interval[ p-value0.008], history of any illness [p-value 9.991e-09], contraception[ p-value 3.654e-07], presence of pica [p-value <2.2e-16], food aversion [p-value <2.2e-16], residence[ p-value 0.04], fruit vegetable consumption[ p-value 4.518e-13] and meat/poultry consumption [p-value 3.068e-08] had statistically significant association with anemia in pregnant women. Parity and bleeding during index pregnancy were not significantly associated with anemia. Conclusion: The prevalence of anemia was found to be 57.1%. Iron supplementation during pregnancy and presence of pica were significantly associated with anemia in the study population. Therefore, long term and short term strategies helpful in alleviating these predisposing factors need to be developed so as to reduce the number of mothers affected by anemia.