Prevalence of Anemia Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Selam Health Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2016-09-03
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Anemia is a widespread health problem among pregnant women causing maternal/infant
morbidity and mortality mainly in low-income countries. Understanding of the magnitude of
anemia and related socio-demographic variables in a specific setting would help scale-up
preventive and therapeutic measures in a locality. The aim of this study was, therefore, to
estimate the prevalence of anemia among pregnant women attending antenatal care at Selam
Health Center, northwest Addis Ababa. The study was conducted from December 2015 to
February 2016. Questionnaire and face-to-face interview methods were used to gather pertinent
data on socio-demography, clinical history and maternal characteristics of the participants.
Venous blood was drawn to measure haemoglobin (Hb) and define anemia (Hb<11.0g/dl). The
overall prevalence of anemia was 16.3% (n=480). Majority of the participants (52%) have mild
anemia (10-10.9gm/dl).Those with human immunodeficiency virus(OR=3.67,95%CI:1.7-7.90,P
value=0.001), or with intestinal parasitic infection (OR=3.46, 95% CI:1.67-7.20,Pvalue=0.001)
or having lower inter-pregnancy gap (OR=7.312,95%CI:3.041-17.587,Pvalue=0.001) were
significant predictors of anemia .The prevalence of anemia in this study was lower than reports
from some other parts of Ethiopia, due to early antenatal care follow up and better health care
awareness among the participants, the figure is sizeable and in need of attention.
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Keywords
Keywords, Anemia, Haemoglobin, Pregnancy, Prevalence, Selam Health Center, Antenatal