Iron deficiency anemia in
pregnant women is a major
health problem in
India. According to
WHO,
anemia in
pregnant women is described as Hb% < 11g/dl or
hematocrit < 33% and all
pregnant women are to be given a standard
dose of 60mg and 120mg elemental
iron for prophylaxis and
treatment of
anemia respectively. As per ICMR guidelines, the
dosage has increased from 60 to 100mg for
treatment of
anemia. This study was done to study the prescribing pattern of
iron preparations in antenatal
women and to compare the elemental
iron content in the
drug. Fifty
pregnant women were included in the study.
Prescription analysis showed that 94% were given oral
iron preparations and 6% were given I.V.
injections. The commonly prescribed
drugs were
Ferrous Ascorbate(42%) and
Sodium Feredetate(40%) containing elemental
iron 100mg and 33mg respectively. The I.V. preparation used was mainly
iron sucrose (6%). Since both the oral
iron preparations were prescribed once daily,
Ferrous Ascorbate should be preferred over
Sodium Feredetate since the total elemental
iron in
Sodium Feredetate is not sufficient as per
WHO and ICMR guidelines.