PREVALENCE OF ANEMIA AND ITS SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC DETERMINANTS IN PREGNANT WOMEN AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN

AIM: Prevalence of anemia and its socio-demographic determinants in pregnant women at a tertiary care hospital in Jaipur, Rajasthan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All the pregnant women aged 25 to 35 years, registered at antenatal clinic at Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, Jaipur were included. A predesigned and pre tested questionnaire was used to elicit the information. Various possible causes of anaemia were considered. Data was entered on Microsoft Access and was analysed using the statistical software SPSS version 11.5 for windows vista. Chi square test was used for finding the association between degree of anaemia and various factors. p value less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant and p value less than 0.001 was considered to be highly significant. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women is still quiet high (70%), as also found in various other studies done in India. The existing health care resources should be reinforced striclly, with mandatory supply of IFA tablets to adolescent girls & pregnant women, food fortification along with correction of other nutritional deficiencies and timely interventions for reducing the burden of malaria, & other infectious diseases. Unfavourable socio demographic factors are the major barriers to the efforts in place for the prevention of anaemia during pregnancy. Socio-economic status, literacy of women & awareness related to health concerns are the major determinants that contribute to the problem of anaemia. Therefore public health education/information on reproductive health are important health care measures to be undertaken at the community level, taking care of the fact that the health care should be provided during the important years of adolescence, before marriage & child bearing. Also it is high time for realisation that health system should focus on various factors that contribute to the occurrence of anaemia & include them as an important indicator in the national health care policy.