Prevalence of anemia and its risk factors among supplemented and non-supplemented pregnant women in Sulaimani city Kurdistan-Iraq

Abstract: Background: Anaemia is a serious global public health problem that particularly affects pregnant women. It was estimated that 41.8% of pregnant women worldwide were anaemic. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to find out the prevalence of anemia and its associated risk factors among supplemented and non-supplemented pregnant women in Sulaimani city.   Patient and methods: Sixty hundred and forty one samples were collected randomly from the pregnant and control women. Data concerned to age, education, residence, and obstetrical related factors were collected by face to face interview.  Finally, 5 ml of venous blood were collected from each pregnant woman for complete blood count, serum iron, serum ferritin, folic acid and vitamin B12 determination.  Results: this study found that 74.2% and 34.9 of non-supplemented and supplemented pregnant women were anemic respectively. Factors such as; gestational age, gravidity, history of abortion, birth intervals, age, occupation, level of education, body mass index, family income and blood pressure were significantly associated with the rate of anaemia. There were differences between the rate of anemia among supplemented and non-supplemented pregnant women in all factors, the rates were decreased in the supplemented groups. The normal percentage of serum ferritin was very low; 16.5% and 38.4% among non-supplemented and supplemented anemic pregnant women respectively. Conclusion: the prevalence of anemia was high among non-supplemented compared to supplemented pregnant women. The majority of anemia was mild type. All risk factors that are associated with anemia were decreased in supplemented compared to non-supplemented pregnant women. Most of the anemic cases in our result are iron deficient.