Prevalence of anaemia at booking in a semi-urban community in north-central Nigeria.

Aims And Objectives: This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of anaemia at booking clinic, describe the antenatal booking pattern, and categorize the degree of anaemia with certain demographic features.

Subjects And Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out over a six month period between 1st April and 30th September 2008. A questionnaire was used to obtain demographic information and venous blood samples were collected from 1,086 consecutive patients who consented to participate in the study. The blood samples were tested for haemoglobin levels, genotype and blood group.

Results: Seven hundred and thirty two (67.4%) of the women anaemic at booking. Anaemia was more prevalent among multgravidae than primigravidae (p<0.05). Six hundred and sixty nine (61.6%) had mild anaemia while 40(4.4%) had moderate anaemia and 15 (1.4%) were severely anaemic, of which 8 (53.3%) were below 18 years of age. Varied degrees of anaemia were more common among women aged 24-28 years and in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy (80.7%) (p<0.05). One hundred and seventy (15.7%) of the enrolled booked for antenatal care in the 1st trimester, while 703(64.7%) booked in the 2nd trimester and 213 (19.6%) in the 3rd trimester of their pregnancies. Thirteen (1.2%) had sickle cell anaemia.

Conclusion: Prevalence of anaemia at booking remains high in our society. Urgent need for public health education on early antenatal booking and improved literacy level of women is suggested to reduce the burden of anaemia in pregnancy.