Prevalence of Anaemia among Pregnant Women in Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH) Port Harcourt

To assess the prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy and recommend a cut-off value for antenatal women in developing countries, a cross sectional study was carried out in the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), Port Harcourt, a tertiary health care centre in Nigeria. 346 apparently healthy asymptomatic pregnant women visiting the antenatal clinic for the first time were enrolled for the study. Hemoglobin concentrations were determined using standard hematological procedures. Out of the 346 pregnant women studied, 50 (14.5%) were non-anaemic and 296 (85.5%) were anaemic giving a prevalence rate of 85.5%. There is moderate prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy in this part of the world. Since the mean Hb value of the pregnant women in this study was 11.25gldl and the pregnant women with Hb values around 10gldl are apparently healthy, a cut-off value of 10.0gldl may be considered ideal for defining anaemia in developing countries.

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