Metrics details. Anaemia in pregnancy is a major public health problem especially in the low-income countries where it is highly prevalent. There has been no recent study in Uganda about the factors associated with anaemia in pregnancy.
Women were administered a questionnaire and their baseline blood haemoglobin was examined using portable HemoCueR Hb system. Predictors of anaemia were estimated using linear and logistic regression analysis.
The mean Hb was After adjusting for measured confounders, factors associated with increased risk of anaemia in pregnancy were malaria infection OR: 1. Intermittent presumptive treatment of malaria, maternal age and parity showed a weak association with anaemia in pregnancy. The high prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy in our setting highlights the need to put more effort in the fight against malaria and HIV, and also ensure that pregnant women access iron supplements early in pregnancy.
Globally, anaemia in pregnancy is a public health problem [ 1 ]. It is estimated that more than half of the pregnant women in the world are anaemic, with resource-limited settings having a higher burden than high-income nations [ 1 ]. Anaemia in pregnancy increases the risk of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality, and is associated with premature labour and low birth weight [ 2 β 4 ]. Knowing the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy is a useful measure of the health and nutritional status of pregnant women.
At the health facility level, it is important for individual case management and planning of resources. Prior studies have documented the risk factors for anaemia in pregnancy to include malaria [ 5 β 7 ], Human Immunodeficiency virus HIV [ 7 β 10 ] and teenage pregnancies [ 11 β 13 ].
