A STUDY TO ESTIMATE THE PREVALENCE OF ANEMIA AT THE ANTENATAL CLINIC OF SUT ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Dr. P S Sreejith; Dr. V.S.Kirankumar

Volume : V, Issue : VII, July - 2016

A STUDY TO ESTIMATE THE PREVALENCE OF ANEMIA AT THE ANTENATAL CLINIC OF SUT ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Dr. P S Sreejith, Dr. V. S. Kirankumar

Abstract :

Background . Anemia in pregnancy is a common problem in most developing countries. Nutritionalanemia, due to iron and folic acid deficiency, is directly or indirectly responsible for about 20% of maternal deaths in India. Objective. To estimate the percentage of anemia among the pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at SUTAMS Trivandrum Methodology A cross sectional study to estimate the prevalence of anemia was conducted at the antenatal clinic of SUTAMS during the study period of June– July 20th 2014 by using pre–designed ,pre–tested structured schedule .A total of 100 pregnant women were personally interviewed and their serum Hb levels were obtained from the laboratory investigation report at SUTAMS. Statistical analysis were done by percentage and proportions, and the prevalence computed. Results :. A total of 64% of the study sample was found to be anaemic. Of this 85.90% suffered from mild anaemia,12.50% from moderate anaemia and 1.50% from severe anaemia. The anaemai prevalence was significantly higher among those subjects who were in there second trimester of pregnancy or belonging to 21–25 years of age . Conclusion A high prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy needs mandatory regular supply of iron and folic acid tablets to adolescent and pregnant women from fourth month of gestation onwards 3–6 months postpartum along with correction of other nutritional deficiencies and timely intervention for reducing the burden of related diseases.