Anemia in Ugandan pregnant women: a cross-sectional, systematic review and meta-analysis study
Loading...
Date
2021-02-19
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tropical medicine and health
Abstract
Background: Anemia in pregnancy represents a global public health concern due to wide ranging maternal and
neonatal adverse outcomes in all peripartum periods. We estimated the prevalence and factors associated with
anemia in pregnancy at a national obstetrics and gynecology referral hospital in Uganda and in addition performed
a systematic review and meta-analysis of the overall burden of anemia in pregnancy in Uganda.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among 263 pregnant women attending the antenatal care clinic
of Kawempe National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, in September 2020. Anemia in pregnancy was defined as
a hemoglobin level of < 11.0 g/dl and microcytosis as a mean corpuscular volume (MCV) of < 76 fL. We also
performed a systematic review (PROSPERO Registration ID: CRD42020213001) and meta-analysis of studies indexed
on MEDLINE, Embase, African Journal Online, ClinicalTrials.gov, ICTRP, and the Cochrane Library of systematic review
between 1 January 2000 and 31 September 2020 reporting on the prevalence of anemia in pregnancy in Uganda.
Results: The prevalence of anemia was 14.1% (n= 37) (95%CI 10.4–18.8), of whom 21 (56.8%) had microcytic
anemia. All cases of anemia occurred in the second or third trimester of pregnancy and none were severe.
However, women with anemia had significantly lower MCV (75.1 vs. 80.2 fL, p<0.0001) and anthropometric
measurements, such as weight (63.3 vs. 68.9kg; p=0.008), body mass index (25.2 vs. 27.3, p=0.013), hip (98.5 vs. 103.8
cm, p=0.002), and waist (91.1 vs. 95.1 cm, p=0.027) circumferences and mean systolic blood pressure (BP) (118 vs
125 mmHg, p=0.014). Additionally, most had BP within the normal range (59.5% vs. 34.1%, p=0.023). The
comparison meta-analysis of pooled data from 17 published studies of anemia in pregnancy in Uganda, which had
a total of 14,410 pregnant mothers, revealed a prevalence of 30% (95% CI 23–37).
Conclusions: Despite our study having a lower prevalence compared to other studies in Uganda, these findings
further confirm that anemia in pregnancy is still of public health significance and is likely to have nutritional causes,
requiring targeted interventions. A larger study would be necessary to demonstrate potential use of basic clinical
parameters such as weight or blood pressure as screening predictors for anemia in pregnancy.
Description
Keywords
Anemia,, Pregnancy,, Uganda
Citation
Bongomin, F., Olum, R., Kyazze, A. P., Ninsiima, S., Nattabi, G., Nakyagaba, L., ... & Andia-Biraro, I. (2021). Anemia in Ugandan pregnant women: a cross-sectional, systematic review and meta-analysis study. Tropical medicine and health, 49(1), 1-13.