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Iron Status of Pregnant Women in Rural and Urban Communities of Cross River State, South-South Nigeria
Okafor, I. M.; Okpokam, D. C.; Antai, A. B. & Usanga., E. A.
Abstract
Summary: Anaemia in pregnancy is a major public health problem in Nigeria. Iron deficiency is one of the major causes
of anaemia in pregnancy. Inadequate iron intake during pregnancy can be dangerous to both baby and mother. Iron status
of pregnant women was assessed in two rural and one urban communities in Cross River State Nigeria. Packed cell
volume, haemoglobin, mean cell haemoglobin, mean cell haemoglobin concentration, red cell count, serum iron, total iron
binding capacity, transferrin saturation, serum ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor and soluble transferrin receptor/ferritin
ratio were measured in plasma/serum of 170 pregnant women within the age range of 15-45 years. Seventy participants
were from antenatal clinic of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital Calabar (urban community), 50 from St Joseph
Hospital Ikot Ene (rural community) in Akpabuyo Local Government Area and the remaining 50 from University of
Calabar Teaching Hospital extension clinic in Okoyong (rural community), Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross
River state. The prevalence of anaemia, iron deficiency, iron depletion and iron deficiency anaemia were found to be
significantly higher (p<0.05) among pregnant women from the two rural communities when compared to the urban
community. it was also observed that the prevalence of anaemia, iron deficiency, iron depletion and iron deficiency
anaemia were significantly higher (p<0.05) among pregnant women from Akpabuyo 38(76.00%), 20(40.00%),
23(46.0%) , 16(32.00%) respectively followed by Okoyong 24(48.0%), 20(40.0%), 16(32.0%), 6(12.0) and
then those from Calabar 14(20%), 12(17.90%) , 14(20.0%). The mean haemoglobin and haematocrit were
significantly reduced (p<0.01) in pregnant women from the two rural communities. Serum iron, serum ferritin and
transferrin saturation showed no significant difference while total iron binding capacity and soluble transferrin receptor
significantly (p<0.01) increased among pregnant women from Okoyong when compared to those from Calabar. It was
also shown that pregnant women in their third trimesters and multigravidae had the highest prevalence of iron depletion
and iron deficiency anaemia while prevalence of iron deficiency and anaemia were higher in primigravidae and the
pregnant women in their second trimester. In conclusion, this study has shown that the prevalence of anaemia and iron
deficiency anaemia are higher among pregnant women in the rural communities when compared to those in the urban
areas.
Keywords
Anaemia; Iron deficiency; Iron status; Okoyong; Akpabuyo; Calabar
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