Prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia among pregnant women in urban and rural areas of Abia state

Abstract

This study aimed at identifying the prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia among pregnant women at different pregnancy trimesters in rural and urban areas of Abia state, Nigeria. Iron deficiency anaemia is recognized as the most prevalent nutritional problem in the world and has devastating consequences on the mother and foetus. The subjects that participated in this study were pregnant women (in their various trimesters) from an urban hospital precisely the Federal Medical Center, Umuahia and a rural hospital, General Hospital, Amachara, both in Abia State; who attended the hospitals antenatal clinics. Their ages ranged between 19-39 years. A total of four hundred pregnant women were used for haemoglobin assessment while two hundred women were used for serum ferritin assessment. The assessments were carried out using standard procedures. The haemoglobin and serum ferritin concentrations were categorized using recommended standards. About 25% of the women were in their first trimester, 38% were in second trimester while 37% were in their third trimester. The mean age of the pregnant women was 28.54±4.71 years with a minimum of 19 years. The result showed that the prevalence of anaemia was 32.3% while 14% of the women were iron deficient. The prevalence of Iron deficiency anaemia was 33.3 and 30.8% among the rural and urban pregnant women respectively and mostly in their third trimesters.