Prevalence of Anemia and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women in North Western Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background. Anemia affects the lives of more than 2 billion people globally, accounting for over 30% of the world's population. Anemia is a global public health problem occurring at all stages of the life cycle but the burden of the problem is higher in pregnant women particularly in developing countries. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anemia and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in north western zone of Tigray, northern Ethiopia. Methods. A facility based cross-sectional study was employed. A systematic random sampling procedure was employed to select 714 pregnant women who were attending antenatal clinics in health facilities found in the study area from April to May 2014. The data was entered and analyzed using Epi-info version 3.5.1 and SPSS version 20.0 statistical software, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with anemia among the study participants. All tests were two-sided and p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results. The overall prevalence of anemia (hemoglobin < 11 g/dL) among the pregnant women was 36.1% (95% CI = 32.7%-39.7%) of which 58.5% were mildly, 35.7% moderately, and 5.8% severely anemic. In pregnant women, rural residence (AOR = 1.75, 95% CI = 1.01-3.04), no education/being illiterate (AOR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.03-2.37), absence of iron supplementation during pregnancy (AOR = 2.76, 95% CI = 1.92-5.37), and meal frequency of less than two times per day (AOR = 2.28, 95% CI = 1.06-4.91) were the independent predictors for increased anemia among the pregnant women. Conclusions. Anemia was found to be moderate public health problem in the study area. Residence, educational status, iron supplementation during pregnancy, and meal frequency per day were statistically associated with anemia among the pregnant women. Awareness creation and nutrition education on the importance of taking iron supplementation and nutritional counseling on consumption of extra meal and iron-rich foods during pregnancy are recommended to prevent anemia in the pregnant women.