Prevalence of Anemia in Pregnant Women under Antenatal Care at the Rivers State University .....

Anemia in pregnancy is a major public health concern around the world. Despite government and health-care programmes, maternal anaemia remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. This indicates that, despite intervention attempts, other factors relate to the high prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women at the time of booking, as well as to assess their knowledge of anaemia and attitudes toward anaemia prevention strategies. Also, to see if there is a connection between anaemia status and level of knowledge/attitude about anaemia prevention. Methodology: A cross-sectional institutional review was conducted. A standardised questionnaire was used to interview 322 consenting participants aged 18 to 48 years old at the time of booking. We gathered data on their sociodemographic characteristics, as well as their awareness of the causes, symptoms, prevention, and complications of anaemia in pregnancy, as well as their attitudes toward anaemia prevention strategies. The women's PCV and HIV test results were obtained. SPSS version 20 was used to analyse the data, which was inserted into an Excel spreadsheet. Fisher's exact test or Chi-square test were used to assess associations between various variables, and logistic regression was used to test statistical significance at P0.05. Their median parity was one and their mean age was 31.654.72 years. 194 (60.2% ) of the 322 women were anaemic, with 186 (57.8% ) having moderate anaemia. Anemia had no significant relationship with age, marital status, education, jobs, parity, pregnancy interval, or socioeconomic status, but there was a significant relationship between gestational age and HIV status, with only gestational age remaining significant after logistic regression. The relationship between anaemia and knowledge and attitude was not important, but knowledge of anaemia and its prevention was significantly linked to higher educational status. The prevalence of anaemia was found to be very high in this research. Despite having a strong understanding and attitude toward anaemia prevention, late booking for ANC was linked to anaemia. Early booking and iron and folic acid supplementation must be encouraged.

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