Prevalence of Anaemia among Antenatal Clinic Attendees at A Tertiary Hospital in South West, Nigeria

Introduction: Anaemia in pregnancy is a global public health problem causing both maternal and perinatal morbidities and mortalities. Prevalent rates vary from one geopolitical region to the other. Efforts have been made to reduce this condition during pregnancy through the use of haematinics and other interventions. However, despite all the efforts put in place, pregnant women still present with this condition. This study was carried out to find out its prevalence rate and the factors responsible for it.

Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional institutional based study carried out at the antenatal clinic of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital Complex, Akure, Ondo State, South West, Nigeria. The study used a systematic sampling to recruit 400 antenatal clinic patients over a period of 16weeks starting from the 16th of August to 16th of December 2022.The women were interviewed with copies of a structured questionnaire administered by trained research doctors who also helped in the collection of the blood samples. About 3mls of venous blood was collected from the antecubital vein using plastic disposable syringes into sample bottles containing ethylene diamine-tetra acetic acid (EDTA) and the bottles labelled accordingly. Packed cell volume and red cell morphology were done for the women at the time of recruitment. Data obtained were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 22). Descriptive statistics were computed for all relevant variables, Chi Square test and Multivariate logistic regression were used to test for association and possible risk factors for anaemia. The level of significance was set at ???? < 0.05.

Results: Most of the women were within 30years- 39years (51.2%, 205) with a mean age of 31.61years±5.37years. Most of them were married (97.3%, 389), were Christians (94.5%, 378), were Yorubas (82.8%, 331), were traders (40.3%, 161), had tertiary level of education (68.8%, 275) and lived in the urban areas of Ondo State (89.5%,358). Most had their first menses between the ages of 10 to 15 years (79.2%, 317) with a mean age of 14.24 ± 2.12 years. Majority had inter- pregnancy interval of ≤ 2 years (53.7%, 215). There was no history of bleeding in most of the women (91.5%, 366), many of them were in the third trimester of their pregnancy (64.1%, 257) with a mean gestational age of 28.83 ± 6.91 weeks. The prevalence of anaemia among the study participants was 40.0% (160/400) while 60% (240/400) were not anaemic. Among the participants who were anaemic, 77.5% (124/160) had mild anaemia, 22.5% (36/160) had moderate anaemia while none had severe anaemia. The only risk factors identified to be responsible for anaemia among the women were high parity and being in the third trimester of pregnancy.

Conclusion: This study showed that the prevalence of anaemia is still high among our women mostly occurring among women of high parity and in the third trimester of pregnancy. Efforts must be intensified to address this condition through the use of haematinics which can be started pre-conception and adequate counselling on the need to fully recover from the effects of one pregnancy before embarking on another.