Abstract

Background: According to the World Health Organization anemia in pregnant women is defined as blood hemoglobin 40% of pregnant women all over the world are anemic, South Asia constituting 49.8% and 50.1% by India. About 20% of maternal deaths are caused by complications secondary to anemia worldwide and Iron deficiency anemia accounts for 85%. Additional iron and folic acid (IFA) are needed for pregnant women to meet their own nutritional needs and that of the developing fetus. Deficiencies in IFA during pregnancy can negatively influence the health of the mother as well as fetal development. The use of IFA supplements is associated with a reduced risk of iron deficiency and anemia. Therefore, Reproductive Child Health Program is supplementing 100–200 IFA supplements to all pregnant women who are registered.

Objectives: To determine the compliance for IFA tablets and factors influencing it among the pregnant women (2nd and 3rd trimester) residing at Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC) of Shyamanur Shivashankarappa Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (SSIMS and RC), Davangere.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2017 to December 2017 at RHTC of SSIMS and RC, Davangere. All the pregnant women who gave consent were interviewed on their antenatal visits and data was collected using pre-designed, pre-structured questionnaire and other necessary information were taken from their recent medical reports. Analysis was done by using SPSS v10, Chi-square test was applied to find the association among the variables.

Results: In the present study the compliance to IFA tablets was found to be 85.7% among the total participants. Education, type of family, number of antenatal care (ANC) visits are significantly related to the compliance of IFA tablets.

Conclusion: Compliance to IFA is higher than the national average which may be attributed to the good awareness and health service provided during the ANC check-ups.

Key words: Iron and Folic Acid Supplements; Compliance; Pregnant Women; Rural Area