PREVALENCE OF ANEMIA AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG NON-PREGNANT WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE (15-49 YEARS) IN DHIMAL COMMUNITY OF DAMAK MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of anemia in non-pregnant women of reproductive age (15-49 years) in Dhimal community of Damak municipality and factors associated with it. A structured questionnaire was administered to the participants for socio-demographic and food frequency questionnaire for dietary data. Hemocue Hb kit was used to determine blood hemoglobin level. Anthropometric measurement was used to determine BMI as well as WHR. Chi-square test was used to analyze the association between hemoglobin level and various factors. Out of the 134 participants, 87 (64.92%) were found to be anemic. Categorizing into various degrees, 50 (37.3%) were mildly anemic, 35 (26.10%) moderately anemic and 2 (1.50%) of them were severely anemic. The mean Hb level was 11.53±1.42 gm/dl and the median was 11.65 gm/dl. Similarly the maximum and minimum values were 15.7 gm/dl and 7.00 gm/dl. The only parameter where association was found was iron supplementation during pregnancy with p=0.006. Other characteristics such as age (p=0.118), marital status (p=0.413), number of births among the married population (p=0.613), education level (0.398), BMI (p=0.872), WHR (p=0.546), disease history of past 3 months (p=0.258) were not significantly associated with the p>0.05. The menstrual status and bleeding period were also not found to be associated with anemia with p=0.472 and 0.904 respectively. Factors such as yearly income (p=0.422) and occupation (p=0.862) were not significantly associated with anemia. Family characteristics: family size (p=0.221) and type of family (p=0.800) were also not associated with the dependent variable. Others factors such as knowledge about iron (p=0.168), treatment of drinking water (p=0.371) were not associated to the dependent variable. Anemia is found to be a major health problem in the target population. A multi sectorial long term approach is needed to overcome these issues.