Background: Iron deficiency anemia is one of the most common health and nutritional problems in the world. Iron deficiency anemia in pregnant women can lead to low birth weight and preterm birth. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of anemia and identify its related factors in the pregnant women referring to health and treatment centers of Bojnurd in 2014.
Methods: This descriptive, analytical study was conducted on 515 out of 2073 pregnant women selected through multi-stage sampling. The study data were gathered from the household records in health and treatment centers of Bojnurd using a checklist. In this study, anemia was defined as hemoglobin less than 11. The data were entered into the SPSS statistical software, version 16 and were analyzed using chi-square test and correlation coefficient.
Results: The participants’ ages ranged from 15 to 43 years, with the mean age of 26.25 years. The prevalence of anemia based on 6-10 weeks and 26-30 weeks hemoglobin levels was 4.8% and 24.4%, respectively. This measure was obtained as 3.2% and 9% based on 6-10 weeks and 26-30 weeks hematocrit levels, respectively. Anemia was significantly associated with mother’s occupation, number of pregnancies, number of children, type of previous births, mother’s weight in the first care, mother’s Body Mass Index (BMI), underlying diseases associated with anemia, mother’s age in the first pregnancy, and the interval between the last and present pregnancies (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The study results showed that the prevalence of anemia was somewhat acceptable. Yet, anemia is a preventable condition and pregnant women are at risk of this disease. Thus, it is necessary to focus on prevention programs, education, prenatal care, nutritional counseling, and iron supplementation during pregnancy to reduce the prevalence of anemia.