title: Prevalence and associated factors of anemia among pregnant women of Mekelle town: a cross sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nutritional anemia is the most common type of anemia worldwide and mainly includes iron, folic acid, vitamin B12 and vitamin C deficiencies. Anemia is a global public health problem affecting people in all age groups but the burden of the problem is higher in pregnant women. The study aimed to assess prevalence of anemia and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in governmental health institutions in mekele town.
  
  
  METHODS
  Institution based cross-sectional study was employed. Systematic random sampling procedure was employed to select 619 study subjects. Pretested questionnaire were used to collect the data. The predictive value of the variable to Anemia was identified by bivariate and multiple logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall prevalence of anemia among pregnant women was 19.7%. Meal frequency less than two per day [AOR 3.93 95% CI (2.0,7.9)], Low Dietary Diversity score [AOR 12.8 95% CI (6.4,25.6)], Medium Dietary Diversity score [AOR 2.4 95% CI (1.2,4.8)], Parity [AOR 2.3 95% CI (1.4,3.8)] and Meat consumption less than once per week [AOR 2.2 95% CI (1.0,4.9)] were found to be factors affecting Anemia in pregnant women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anemia among pregnant women is found to be mild public health problem in the study area. Parity, meal frequency, dietary diversity and meat consumption were significantly and independently affect anemia of pregnant women. Using family planning methods and improved meat consumption contributes for decreasing prevalence of anemia. Moreover, Diversifying food intake and increasing meal frequency of pregnant women is highly recommended.
authors.forename: Abrehet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abriha
authors.forename: Melkie Edris
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Yesuf
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Nutrition, College of Medicine and Health sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia. molmesele@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Molla Mesele
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Wassie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000740:Anemia / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet; D005002:Ethiopia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011250:Pregnancy Complications, Hematologic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015995:Prevalence; D055815:Young Adult