Haemoglobin levels among pregnant women in the Polonnaruwa distrct

Abstract

This study was carried out to assesshaemoglob-in levels of pregnant women resident in 3 health areas in the Polonnaruwa district. 978 pregnant women were randomly selected from among ante-natal clinic attendees, of whom 401 were from the Lankapura health area, 247 from the Dimbulagala health area and 330 from the Thamankaduwa health area. Capillary blood was obtained by finger prick and haemoglobin levels were estimated by the HemoCue method. Thirty seven percent of pregnant women were anaemic using a cutoff value of 11.0 g/dL. There were no significant differences in the prevalence of anaemia among the first 4 parities (p=0.5180). There were significant differences in the prevalence of anaemia between the 3 trimesters with the prevalence being highest during the 3" trimester (44%). The prevalence of anaemia was highest among pregnant women in the Lankapura health area area (44%) and lowest among pregnant women in the Thammankaduwa health area (19%).