Prevalence of Anemia Among Pregnant Women Availing Antenatal Care at Brack General Hospital
Abstract
This study aimed to determine the prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women of various age groups and at different gestation periods visiting antenatal clinic at Brack General Hospital. The ages of recruited participants ranged from 15 to 48 years with a mean age of 28.54 ± 4.3 years. Total of 213 blood samples was collected from the visitors to the antenatal clinic, and the age and stages of each pregnancy of each participant were recorded. Hemoglobin estimation was done using a HemoCueR B-Hemoglobin system and positive anemia cases were classified as mild, moderate, severe and very severe based on the world health organization criteria. The hemoglobin concentrations ranged from 6.5 - 15.5 g/dl with a mean of 10.2± 1.3g/dl. Collected data were analyzed using the Chi-square test and Odds ratio. Out of all blood samples analyzed, 62 cases were anaemic of which 62.9% were mildly anaemic, whereas 37.1% were moderately anaemic and no severe anaemic cases were detected. Anemia was more prevalent (30.30% - 36.70%) in second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Anemia levels reported are low but persistent and present a potentially serious public health problem to mothers, foetal growth and delivery outcome. We recommend health authorities to initiate free iron supplementation and enlist services of extension nutritionists in an integrated programme for the prevention and management of pregnancy related anemia.
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