European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Aim: assessment of the maternal anemia and its impact on perinatal outcome in a tertiary care hospital.
Materials and methods: A prospective, observational study conducted in Department of community medicine, NMCH Patna, Bihar, India, for 1 year.  A total of 200 consecutive clinically suspected cases of anaemia with singleton pregnancies at 34-40 weeks of gestation were included in the study. Their socio-demographic profile and hemoglobin levels were recorded. A descriptive analysis of the data was performed. Results: Out of the 200 clinically diagnosed cases of anaemia that were enrolled in the study 71.25% were from the rural background and 28.75% were from urban area. The mean age of the subjects was 23.3 years ± 3.4 SD. 78.5% of the antenatal mothers were in the age group of 20-30 years followed by 11% in the age group of above 30 years. Anaemia was reported in 70% of antenatal mothers while 30% had no anaemia. Out of these 70%, 51% had mild, 18% had moderate, and 1% had severe anaemia. The birth weight of baby less than 2.5 kgs was recorded in 102 patient with mild anaemia and 36 patient with moderate anaemia and 2 patient with severe anemia. The BMI ranged from 13.8 kg/m² to 24.3 kg/m² with the average BMI being 20.36kg/m². Out of the 200 antenatal mothers evaluated, 152 subjects (76%) had a normal BMI, 44 subjects (22%) were under-weight with a BMI of <17.2 kg/m² whereas only 4 of the subjects (2%) evaluated were overweight with a BMI of 25.9 kg/m².
Conclusion: Maternal anaemia in pregnancy is associated with illiteracy, low socioeconomic status, multiparity, inadequate antenatal care and rural geographic area. Severe anaemia was associated with high perinatal mortality.