Reproductive System & Sexual Disorders: Current Research
Open Access

Abstract

Pregnancy Anaemia Prevalence and Associated Factors among Women Attending Ante Natal Care in North Shoa Zone, Ethiopia

Fantahun Ayenew, Yohannes Abere and Genanew Timerga

Background: Anaemia is a global public health problem affecting both developing and developed countries with major consequences on human health as well as social and economic development. Anaemia in pregnancy is a condition with effects that may be deleterious to mothers and fetuses. Indeed, it is a known risk factor for many maternal and fetal complications. Objective: The study was aimed at assessing the prevalence of anaemia and associated factors among pregnant mothers attending Ante Natal Care Service in North Shoa Zone, Ethiopia. Methods: Institution based cross sectional study design was conducted in Debre Berhan Health Institutions from September to December 2013. Antenatal care service providers in the respective health facilities collected the data by interview and laboratory tests using structured and semi structured questionnaire. Descriptive and analytical statistics were computed using SPSS version 16. Odds Ratios, P-values and 95% CIs - the analytical statistics from bivariate and multi variate logstic regression were used to identify predictor variables associated with the dependent variable - anaemia. Result: A total of 295 participants completed the study making the response rate of 89.4%. The mean age of the participants was (25.6 + 5.4) the minimum and maximum age being 16 and 40 years old respectively. The prevalence of anaemia was found to be 9.7% out of which 64.3%, 32.1% and 3.6% respondents were with mild, moderate and sever anaemia respectively. Knowledge of mothers about anaemia in general and nausea and vomiting on the other hand were identified significantly associated with anaemia. Conclusion: Anaemia prevalence was found to be 9.7% and knowledge of mothers about anaemia and nausea and vomiting were significantly associated with anemia. 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 anaemia.