Reproductive System & Sexual Disorders: Current Research
Open Access

Abstract

Iron Deficiency Anemia among Women of Reproductive Age, an Important Public Health Problem: Situation Analysis

Minaz Mawani, Savera Aziz Ali, Gulshan Bano and Sumera Aziz Ali

Background: Iron deficiency is a major cause of anemia and is more prevalent in developing countries, posing additional burden on health care systems, in the presence of scarcity of resources. The high-risk group consists of females and children but comparatively it is higher in females due to physiological reasons. Multiple factors can predict anemia, which in turn leads to various adverse outcomes.

Objective: The purpose of this literature review was to review and synthesize the findings from literature about the burden, causes, outcomes and important interventions of iron deficiency anemia for developing countries.

Methods: An extensive literature review was carried out by retrieving articles from various databases like Pub med, Google scholar, Science direct, World Bank and WHO databases. Relevant articles were retrieved from different databases by using following text words and phrases: ‘anemia’, ‘Iron deficiency’, ‘risk factors of anemia’, ‘outcomes of anemia’, ‘interventions’ and developing countries.

Results: Multiple determinants of iron deficiency anemia have been identified in the literature including genetic and environmental factors. Some of these factors are lack of proper diet, poor socioeconomic status, high parity of women, access to poor health and genetic etc. Moreover, anemia can result in various poor outcomes like fatigue, poor mental health, lack of concentration, poor feto-neonatal outcomes like stillbirth, preterm birth and postpartum Hemorrhage.

Conclusion: Iron deficiency anemia is one of the important public health problems in developing countries among the women of reproductive age group. Multiple factors like age, parity, socioeconomic status and diet can determine the stores of iron in the women of reproductive age group. Anemia can lead to multiple adverse outcomes, which can be prevented by doing appropriate cost-effective interventions on time.