Prevalence of Anemia among Pregnant Women in Maternity and Children Hospital at Buraidah City

Abstract

Introduction: Anemia is the common health problem in the developing and developed world and vulnerable groups are pregnant mother, adolescent girls and children. Iron deficiency anaemia exhibits the iceberg phenomenon of the disease.Objectives: To determine the prevalence of anemia, socio-demographic characteristics, dietary habits and some risk factors associations with anemia. Materials and Method:The present hospital based cross sectional study was conducted at Maternity and Children Hospital. A total of 233 pregnant women aged between 18-42 years' age group people were selected and a structured self-administered questionnaire submitted to all eligible pregnant women and hemoglobin estimation report was taken from the lab record. Data cleaned and entered in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 21.0 Version. Necessary statistical tests like simple proportions and chi square tests were applied.Results: Prevalence of anemia among pregnant women was 29.3% in Buraidah city. Prevalence of anemia increases with increasing parity and prevalence of anemia among parity >3 was 35.7%. high prevalence of spacing of > 3 years was observed in 37-42 years' age group. In the study population, 12.5% were giving anemia history, 10.2% were thyroid problems. About 44.7% were taking iron supplements regularly. Conclusions:Based on the study results, the prevalence of anemia was not very high comparatively to other studies conducted in the kingdom. There was no severe anaemia people in our study. Among pregnant women, there is a need to strengthen about the anemia awareness, periodical screening from the adolescent age group, regular intake of iron supplements during pregnancy,