Prevalence and associated factors of anaemia among antenatal care attendants in the Kintampo municipalit

Introduction: anemia among pregnant women is endemic in developing countries and often results in complications to mother and fetus (born or unborn). WHO estimates showed that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of 57.1%. The objective here is to determine the prevalence of anemia and its associated factors among pregnant women attending Kintampo North Municipal Hospital (KNMH). Methods: a cross-sectional study in which data were collected among 496 pregnant women who attended KMH between May 2019 and June 2019. Structured questionnaires were used to obtain information on sociodemographic factors, medical history, and key dietary consumption patterns of participants. The main outcome of interest is anemia in pregnancy, defined as a hemoglobin concentration of less than 11.0g/dl. Test of associations between independent variables and the dependent variable was examined using Chi-square. Binary logistic regression models were also fitted after dichotomizing the outcome by whether the women had anemia or not. Statistical significance level was assessed at 5% and 95% confidence interval. Results: the prevalence of anemia was moderate. It is associated with these factors: basic education (tripled the risk), farming/trading reduced the risk by 94%, birth interval of less than 2 years doubled the risk, parity (primiparous and multiparous) doubled the risk, fruits and vegetables consumption (once and twice a week) tripled the risk and pica consumption among the pregnant women doubled its risk. Conclusion: prevalence of anemia was high. Pica, educational level, occupation, and frequency of intake of fruits and dark green leafy vegetables were associated with anemia among pregnant women.