Vitamin A and Iron Deficiency in Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers and Their Infants in Adamawa State, Nigeria: A Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

We determined the breast-feeding patterns, Vitamin A and Iron supplement intake between various age groups of pregnant women in Adamawa state, Nigeria. Of the 161 pregnant women screened for this study, 73% were from Njoboliyo (NJ) (n=118) while 27% from GD Chanrai Memorial hospital (CMH) (n=43). Of the 161 women from the two study sites, women within the 15-24 age brackets had the highest number of study participants [65] 40%. Two-thirds of the study participants take supplements of Iron and Vitamin A (68%) in both study sites, while (22%) in Njoboliyo and (20%) in CMH breast-feed their infants for more than 6months. The intake of iron and vitamin A was observed to be higher in women of age 25-34, but it was statistical not significant (P=0.12, DF=3, X 2 =0.65). Comparing breast-feeding patterns irrespective of age, we observed that 94.1% of the pregnant mothers breastfeed their infants as opposed to the 5.9% that do not breast-feed, but the pattern showed no significant relationship when compared across the various age groups (P=0.62, DF=3, X 2 =3.05). We therefore recommend that proper awareness campaign and seminars be put in place by the government to help enlighten pregnant women on the need to continue breast-feeding their infants even after 6months.