Prevalence and factors associated with anemia among pregnant women attending AMDA hospital of Eastern Nepal

Abstract

Anemia in pregnancy is a global public health problem, affecting nearly 40% of the pregnant women worldwide. The higher burden of anemia was found in Nepal with 46% prevalence among pregnant women. This study is a health facility-based cross-sectional study carried out from September to October 2018. A total of 420 pregnant women of reproductive age group (18-49 years) attending the antenatal check-up in AMDA Hospital of Damak, Jhapa were recruited in this study. Data was collected through a validated semi-structured questionnaire. Collected data was analyzed in SPSS 22. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in data analysis. Chi-square test was applied for the test of association between anemia and designated variables. Later, the variables with a p-value <0.20 obtained in bivariate was processed for multivariate analysis and considered significant with p-value <0.05. Finally, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was reported.

The prevalence of anemia was 42.1% in which 13.6% were severely anemic, 40.7% moderate and 45.8% were mild anemic. The study explored age group <20 and between 30-34 years (AOR 5.499, 95%CI: 1.172-25.792), (AOR 0.175, 95%CI: 0.042-0.735), pregnant with other religion (Buddhist, Christian, Kirant, Muslim) (AOR 3.217, 95%CI: 1.152-8.982), Janajati ethnicity (AOR 0.337, 95%CI: 0.134-0.848) were the factors associated with anemia. In addition, pregnant women working as laborer/peasant farmer (AOR 3.267, 95%CI: 1.121-9.522), Insufficient kitchen garden products (AOR 10.648, 95%CI: 2.702-41.961), vegetables brought rarely and sometimes (AOR 7.042, 95%CI: 1.049-47.277), (AOR 7.653, 95%CI: 2.308-25.371) had higher likelihood of having anemia. Correspondingly, vegetarian (AOR 6.264, 95%CI 1.646-23.830), DGLV once a week (AOR 8.139, 95%CI 1.714-38.680), no dietary diversity (AOR 6.741, 95%CI: 2.528-17.975) and prolong menstruation (AOR 2.696, 95%CI: 1.351-5.380) were independently associated with anemia as well.

The findings identified the necessity of awareness on nutrition and the importance of dietary diversity to pregnant women. Similarly, adequate counseling by health workers on preventing anemia during ANC visit is highly recommended.-