Assessment of Knowledge and Practice Towards Prevention of Anemia Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Government Hospitals in West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Back ground: Anemia affects 1.62 billion people (24.8%), among which 56 million are pregnant women. It is a major public health problem particularly among poorer segments of the population in developing countries where 95% of the world anemic pregnant women are residing. Anemia is one of the most commonly encountered medical disorders during pregnancy. According to WHO estimates, up to 56% of all women living in developing countries are anemic. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge and practice regarding Prevention of anemia among pregnant mothers attending ANC in Governmental hospitals at west shoa zone, Ethiopia.Method: Hospital based cross sectional study was employed in three public hospitals found in West Shewa Zone to find out the level of knowledge and practice regarding prevention of anemia dung pregnancy among women attending ANC. A total of 286 pregnant mothers were interviewed by using pretested structured questionnaire from three hospitals. Simple random sampling procedure was carried out to attain the required sample size. Data was entered and processed in to the computer using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of 286 pregnant women were participated on the study. Among them only 57.3% and 50% were found to have good knowledge and poor practice respectively regarding prevention of anemia during pregnancy. Crude and adjusted odds ratio done revealed that educational status, living in urban, having nuclear family type, previous history of anemia and good practice were significantly associated with knowledge, while educational status and having good knowledge also found to be significantly associated with prevention of anemia during pregnancy.Conclusions: Based on study findings, half of the study participants attending ANC at West Shoa Zone Governmental Hospitals have Poor Knowledge and poor skills regarding prevention of anemia during pregnancy. Multiple factors such as education, residency, having nuclear type of family and previous anemia history found to affect knowledge and practice regarding prevention of anemia during pregnancy significantly. Therefore, Policy makers would be better consider those factors contributed in prevention of anemia during pregnancy.

Keywords: Knowledge, Practice, Prevention, Anemia, Pregnant Women, Antenatal Care.