Prevalence of anemia and related factors among women in Turkey

Objective: to determine the prevalence of anemia and related factors among women in turkey. methods: this descriptive study was conducted at the outpatient clinics of the department of internal medicine,ege university medical school. randomly selected women were given questionnaires regarding their socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics. the data were coded and analyzed using spss version 17.0 software. statistical analyses with 95% confidence intervals were considered to be significant if p<0.05. results: the study results showed an anemia prevalence of 27.8% in the study sample. among all anemia diagnoses among the participants,56.0% were determined to have iron deficiency,37.1% iron-deficiency anemia,and 6.9% severe anemia. it was observed that anemia was detected among women who were 15-49 years of age (p<0.05),menstruating (p<0.05),had a history of cesarean section (p<0.05),and had not entered menopause (p<0.05). based on forward-stepwise-logistic regression analysis,the most important parameter was concluded to be age group,which was followed by menopausal status. conclusions: the study results suggest that the anemia prevalence rate is specifically higher among women of reproductive age. to prevent anemia at a low cost,it is recommended to provide women with relevant information and well-planned interactive educational programs. © 2017,professional medical publications. all rights reserved.