Prevalence of Anemia among Pregnant Women in Maternity and Children Hospital at Buraidah City

Abstract

Introduction: Anemia is the common health problem in the developing and developed world and vulnerable
groups are pregnant mother, adolescent girls and children. Iron deficiency anaemia exhibits the iceberg
phenomenon of the disease.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence of anemia, socio-demographic characteristics, dietary habits and
some risk factors associations with anemia.
Materials and Method: The present hospital based cross sectional study was conducted at Maternity and
Children Hospital. A total of 233 pregnant women aged between 18-42 years’ age group people were selected
and a structured self-administered questionnaire submitted to all eligible pregnant women and hemoglobin
estimation report was taken from the lab record. Data cleaned and entered in Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) 21.0 Version. Necessary statistical tests like simple proportions and chi square tests were
applied.
Results: Prevalence of anemia among pregnant women was 29.3% in Buraidah city. Prevalence of anemia
increases with increasing parity and prevalence of anemia among parity >3 was 35.7%. high prevalence of
spacing of > 3 years was observed in 37-42 years’ age group. In the study population, 12.5% were giving
anemia history, 10.2% were thyroid problems. About 44.7% were taking iron supplements regularly.
Conclusions: Based on the study results, the prevalence of anemia was not very high comparatively to
other studies conducted in the kingdom. There was no severe anaemia people in our study. Among pregnant
women, there is a need to strengthen about the anemia awareness, periodical screening from the adolescent
age group, regular intake of iron supplements during pregnancy,