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A STUDY TO DETERMINE THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MATERNAL ANEMIA AND PRETERM BIRTH

Dr Saima Shams

Introduction: Preterm birth remains one of the greatest causes of perinatal mortality and morbidity worldwide. The association between maternal anemia and preterm birth remains equivocal with some, but not other, studies documenting increased risk. The clinical consequences of iron deficiency anemia include preterm delivery, perinatal mortality, and postpartum depression. Objectives: To determine the association between maternal anemia and preterm birth. Study design: This prospective cohort group study was conducted in Department of Obst & Gynae Teching Hospital DHQ, DG Khan during 5 th August 2017 to 4th February 2017. A total of 162 patients (81 anemic and 81 non-anemic), 20 to 40 years of age were included. Patients with multiple pregnancy, h/o diabetes mellitus, pre-eclampsia, cardiac disease, hepatic dysfunction and IUGR were excluded. Patients were divided into exposed and non-exposed groups. Exposed group included the women with anemia while non-exposed group included the nonanemic women. All patients were followed for presence or absence of preterm delivery. Results: The mean age of women in exposed group was 26.93 ± 4.95 years and in non-exposed group was 26.89 ± 4.13 years. The mean gestational age in exposed group was 34.69 ± 0.96 weeks and in non-exposed group was 34.77 ± 0.95 weeks. The mean parity was 2.49 ± 0.77. In my study, preterm birth was seen in 46 (56.79%) women in exposed group compared to 23 (28.40%) in non-exposed group which has shown p-value of 0.0006 and relative risk of 2.00 which is significant and shows a positive association between maternal anemia and preterm birth. Conclusion: This study concluded that there is increased frequency of preterm birth in anemic women as compared to non-anemic women and thus showed a positive association between maternal anemia and preterm birth. Keywords: Anemia, preterm birth, iron deficiency.

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