Prevalence of anaemia during pregnancy in district Burdwan, West Bengal
Agarwal, A.K.; Sen, A.K.; Kalra, N.K.; Gupta, N.
Indian Journal of Public Health 43(1): 26-31
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-557X PMID: 11243084 Document Number: 284036
This article presents the prevalence of anemia during pregnancy in District Burdwan, West Bengal, India. 653 women in Kanksha (experimental block) and Ausgram II (control block) in the third trimester of pregnancy were examined for the presence of anemia. Results showed that 80% of the pregnant women in Kanksha and Ausgram II were found to be anemic and 67% took iron folates till varied periods. The habit of iron folate consumption improved with increasing duration of pregnancy: At 6 months only 18.8% consumed 50-100 tablets of iron and folic acid (IFA), while 43% consumed the same quantity at 9 months. Only 4.2% of women in the 9th month were anemic in the category of those taking more than 100 IFA tablets compared to 50% among those taking less than 50 tablets at the same point in pregnancy. The occurrence of moderate anemia declined significantly with increasing duration of pregnancy. The similar trend of IFA consumption in connection with women having normal levels of hemoglobin indicates a high prevalence of iron deficiency maternal anemia in Kanksha and Ausgram II.