ABSTRACT
Objective: To find out relationship of anemia with nutrition among pregnant women residing in urban slum areas of Taluka Qasimabad, District Hyderabad
Study design: A community based cross sectional descriptive study
Place and duration of study: Study was conducted in urban slum areas of Taluka Qasimabad, District Hyderabad from 1[st] March 2011 to 31[st] August 2011
Methodology: Two hundred and fifty [250] pregnant women during 2[nd] and 3[rd] trimester of pregnancy were included in the study. The qualitative data collected by filling questionnaire comprised of demographic information about woman, her family and about her diet. The quantitative data collected by assessing anemia by determining the hemoglobin level in the enrolled pregnant women
Results: Two hundred and fifty [250] pregnant women were included in the study. Two hundred and thirty three pregnant women were found anemic [93.2 %]. Majority of the women ie 70% presented with moderate anemia [hemoglobin level 7.0-9.9g /dl] while severe anemia [hemoglobin level <7 g/dl] was recorded in 5.2% pregnant women. While17.6% women presented with mild anemia [hemoglobin range 10.0-10.9g/dl]. Majority of the women in study population were not taking balanced diet i.e. 232 out of total 250 and all of them were anemic not taking balanced diet and statistically significant association was found between occurrence of anemia and unbalanced diet. [p= 0.00]
Conclusions: Our study showed a significant association between occurrence of anemia during pregnancy and unbalanced diet on the studied population