. A. Jenit Osborn; . G. M. Muhammad; . S. L. Ravishankar; . Anil C. Mathew
Volume 11, Issue 8 , September 2021, , Pages 1-7
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Anemia is a major public health problem among reproductive‑aged women in India.Despite many programs implemented for decades to fight anemia, still the prevalence of anemia ...
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BACKGROUND: Anemia is a major public health problem among reproductive‑aged women in India.Despite many programs implemented for decades to fight anemia, still the prevalence of anemia ishigh because its associated factors vary among different regions. This exploratory study was carriedout to find the prevalence of anemia and factors influencing it among nonpregnant reproductive‑agedwomen (15–49 years) in a rural area of Coimbatore.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted in the field practice area of Rural HealthTraining Centre, PSG IMSR, Coimbatore, during March 2016 to August 2016. Participants wererecruited by two‑staged random sampling method and 426 participants were enrolled. A predesignedsemi‑structured questionnaire was used to collect the data pertaining to the factors influencing theprevalence of anemia, and their hemoglobin level was measured using a hemoglobin photometer.The data were analyzed using SPSS‑24. (IBM Corporation, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) Univariateanalysis was done using Chi‑square test and the strength of association was estimated by oddsratio. Those factors which were found to be significant by univariate analysis were further subjectedto multivariate logistic regression analysis. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.RESULTS: The prevalence of anemia was estimated as 64.8% (95% confidence interval: 60%–69%).Significant predictors for anemia among the study participants were less frequent intake of greenleafy vegetables (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 3.65, confidence interval [CI]: 2.17–6.12), lowsocioeconomic status (AOR = 3.36, CI: 1.93–5.84), illiteracy (AOR = 3.09, CI: 1.09–5.24), birthspacing <2 years (AOR = 2.49, CI: 1.19–5.25), excessive menstrual bleeding (AOR = 2.27, CI:1.09–4.76), and inadequate knowledge regarding anemia (AOR = 2.03, CI: 1.19–3.44).CONCLUSION: Anemia is still prevalent in high magnitude in reproductive‑aged women, andmeasures to prevent and control it are not optimum. Hence, its multifactorial determinants have tobe addressed to alleviate its burden.