Prevalence of anemia risk factors in pregnant women in Kerman, Iran

Background: anemia in pregnancy is associated with increased rates of maternal and perinatal mortality.objective: to study the prevalence and risk factors of women with anemia during pregnancy in kerman, iran.materials and methods: a retrospective cross-sectional study was performed based on 2213 pregnancies delivered during the years 2005-2007 in kerman, iran. women with hemoglobinopathies such as thalassemia were excluded from analysis. anemia was defined as hemoglobin (hg) lower than 11 g/dl during pregnancy. categorical variables were compared using the chi-square or fisher’s exact test.results: overall, 104 (4.7%) women were anemic (hg<11g/dl), out of which 4.8% had severe anemia (hg<7g/dl), 15.4 % had moderate anemia (hg=7-8.9 g/dl) and 79.8% had mild anemia (hg=9-10.9 g/dl). the frequency of anemia were 5%, 3.4% and 5.7% in the first, second and third trimester, respectively. multiparity was associated with lower hemoglobin concentration during the second/third trimester of pregnancy (p=0.03 and p<0.001, respectively). prevalence of anemia was significantly higher in smokers and opium users (p=0.01 and p=0.003, respectively).conclusion: our study showed that prevalence of anemia was not high in this study. factors associated with anemia during pregnancy were parity, smoking, opium use and not using iron supplement.