Prevalence of anemia during pregnancy in district Faisalabad, Pakistan

The present study was designed to estimate the prevalence/frequency of anemia during pregnancy in women of district Faisalabad, Pakistan and its association with iron-rich diet and socio-economic status of patients. Blood samples of 100 randomly selected pregnant women of age group (17-40) years were analyzed. The overall prevalence rate of anemia was 75%. Anemia was found to be prevalent in third trimester (89.3%) as compared to the second (8%) and first (27%) trimester of pregnancy. Out of the 75 anemic patients, only 10 (13.3%) were having iron rich dietary habits while 65 (86.7%) were having poor dietary habits. The socio-economic factors (age, monthly income) showed non significant correlation between anemic and non anemic pregnant women. Present investigation revealed high prevalence of anemia and the majority of them were of the moderate (hemoglobin: 8.1 -9.9 g/dl) type (33%).