Socio-Economic Determinants of Adherence to Iron and Folic Acid Tablets among Rural Ante-natal Mothers in Lucknow, India

摘要

Introduction: Anemia is a great challenge for maternal health in India, affecting more than half of the pregnant mothers. For com-bating this, iron supplementation during pregnancy has long been recognized as a way. Recent document indicates that only 23% women consumed iron tablets for at least 90 days during pregnancy. In this perspective, the present study aimed to find out the socio-economic determinants of 100 iron and folic acid tablets consumption in rural Lucknow, India. Methods: The cross-sectional study, conducted in 2009-10, used a structured questionnaire to collect data from 352 recently delivered women, following systematic random sampling. Variables of interest included age, religion, education, socio economic status, family type, parity, timing of ante-natal registration and number of ante-natal care visits. Predictors were found out using univariate and multivariate logistic regressions. Results: Overall, 83.5% of the women received 100 iron and folic acid tablets during their pregnancy but, only 36.9% consumed them. Factors significantly associated with consumption of 100 tablets, after simple logistic regression, were education, parity, timing of ante-natal registration and number of ante-natal care visits to any facility. On multiple logistic regression, applying enter method and considering all variables, only primiparity (OR= 2.212, 95% CI= 1.186 – 4.125) and elder age (OR= 1.836, 95% CI= 1.020 – 3.305) were found to be the predictors for 100 iron and folic acid tablet consumption. Conclusion: Consumption of sufficient number of iron and folic acid tablets was very low. Primipara and elderly mothers were more likely to consume 100 iron tablets. This poor status of iron tablets consumption warrants specific approach to improvise maternal health outcome.