Compliance with iron folic acid (IFA) tablets and associated factors among pregnant women attending ante-natal care clinic at Sub District Hospital, Ballabgarh.

Introduction: Anemia is a common public health problem among children, adolescent girls, women in reproductive age groups, pregnant and lactating women, with an estimated prevalence of 50.3% among pregnant women according to National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4. Iron deficiency is regarded as the most common cause of anemia among pregnant women globally and in India. This study was aimed to estimate the prevalence of compliance to iron folic acid (IFA) tablets among pregnant mothers attending ante-natal care (ANC) clinic in a Sub-district hospital (SDH) situated in north India and the various factors associated with non-compliance to IFA tablets.

Methodology: A cross-sectional facility-based study was conducted among pregnant women attending the ANC clinic at SDH, Ballabgarh. A pretested, semi-structured interview schedule was used to obtain socio-demographic data, information related to IFA therapy that they receive, their compliance and the factors that are related to missing of the doses. Data were entered using Epicollect 5 software and Stata version 13.0 was used for statistical analysis.

Results: A total of 484 pregnant women were enrolled in our study. More than 3/4 (77.1%) of the pregnant women were compliant to IFA tablet supplement given to them. The compliance was more in the study participants belonging to older age groups, lower socio-economic status and those with hemoglobin levels >11 gm/dl. The most common reason for non-compliance was found to be "forgetfulness" (63.0%) followed by "side effects" (49.5%).

Conclusion: Compliance with IFA tablets was better among pregnant women who were non anemic and those with good compliance to IFA tablets had better hemoglobin levels.