Published Paper Details:

Anaemia in pregnancy exists worldwide. Anaemia in pregnancy is a public health problem in developing countries like India. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural areas of Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal, India from July 2020 to June 2022. A total of 358 pregnant women were included in this case study. We used the Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) to examine the strength of the association between anaemia and exposure variables and the association between maternal anaemia and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The study found 68.16% of pregnant women to be anaemic in the district under study whereas the percentage of anaemic pregnant women in West Bengal is 62.3%. The study found that 63.93%, 31.15% and 4.92% of pregnant women suffer from mild, moderate and severe anaemia respectively in Purba Medinipur district. The logistic regression analysis revealed that maternal age, educational status, occupation, monthly family income, socio-economic status, gravida, interpregnancy interval, pica habits, antenatal care visits, meals frequency/ day during pregnancy, and history of food insecurity within the past 12 months were significantly associated with anaemia among the pregnant women at p value <= 0.05. Maternal anaemia is significantly associated with poor pregnancy outcomes like preterm and LBW. It is highly recommended that awareness and education programs regarding the regular intake of iron-folate supplements, nutritious diet and iron-rich foods, regular antenatal care visits, hygienic practices and birth spacing in pregnancy should be started at grass-root levels to prevent anaemia in pregnant women.