Abstract:
This is a non-experimental retrospective study on the socio-demographic of pregnant women as correlates of anaemia in pregnancy at booking in selected health care centres in Warri Delta state from January 2015 to December 2016. The total population of women who booked in the health facilities, was 5346 of which 3876 were eligible for the study based on the inclusion criteriaas such there was no need for sampling. The instrument for data collection was a proforma/checklist which was validated by the supervisor and content reader. TheResearch objectives were to determine the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy and the severity among the study population at booking. other objective was to determine the correlation between parity and anaemia in pregnancy, educational level of mother with anaemia in pregnancy and mothers age at booking and anaemia in pregnancy of mothers who booked in the health centers. The hypotheses were focused on determining the correlation between the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy and interpregnancy interval (IPI) and also the correlation of the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy and gestational age at booking. The major findings were that; in the study population there the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy was 1804 (46.5%), With regards to severity in ascending order1363 (75.5%) of mothers who booked had mild anaemia, 415(23.0%) had moderate anaemia while only 26(1.4%) had severe anaemia. The association between the anaemia in pregnancy and parity shows that; primiparous had a prevalence of 15(18.3%), multiparous, 664(33.2%). and among grand multiparous it is 1125(62.7%). The hypotheses were tested using Pearson correlation at 5% level of significance. There was a strong positive significant relationship with the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy with gestational age at booking, and interpregnancy interval at Pearson Correlation of .882 and .786 respectively. The study has concluded that the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy has remained high despite measures on ground to reduce prevalence. It is therefore recommended that more efforts should be made on integrated education of women of reproductive age with regards to anaemia in pregnancy, causes, effects prevention and management of anaemia in pregnancy.
