The Hidden Hunger: Understanding the Burden of Anaemia and Its Determinants Among Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women in Ethiopia

Introduction: Anaemia is a global problem associated with increased maternal mortality and morbidity. Objective: To assess burden of anaemia and its determinants among pregnant and non-pregnant women in Ethiopia Methodology: We used the 2005 DHS data of Ethiopia. Permission to download and analyze the data was granted from ORC Macro, in Calverton. SPSS v10.0 was used to analyze the data. Both univariate and multivariate analysis were carried out. Result: A total of 5960 women of child bearing age were included in the analysis. The prevalence of anaemia was 33.0% (95%CI: 28.7, 37.2%) and 27.3% (95%CI: 26.1, 28.4%) among pregnant and non-pregnant women respectively. The X2 test revealed significant negative association between prevalence of anaemia and women’s educational status, grouped altitude of residences and household wealth index categories (p<0.05, for all three variables). The prevalence of anaemia was positively associated with past five years fertility level ( p<0.0001). Not possessing any toilet facilities (OR 1.85 95%CI: 1.66, 2.1), being resident of rural area (OR 2.02 95%CI: 1.75, 2.32) and not using contraceptive methods (OR 1.63 95%CI: 1.34, 1.98) were also associated with prevalence of anaemia. Logistic regression showed toilet possession to be the only independent predictor of prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women (AOR 2.17 95%CI: 1.28, 3.85). However, regression analysis among non-pregnant women revealed not having any toilet facilities (AOR 1.20 95%CI: 1.02, 1.42), lowering altitude categories and not using contraception methods (AOR 1.39 95%CI: 1.13, 1.72) to be independent predictors of prevalence of anaemia. Conclusion and recommendation: Anaemia is a moderate public health problem among women in Ethiopia but there exists significant differences in magnitude by socio-economic status of women. Interventions designed to address maternal anaemia should pay attention to nutritional and non-nutritional strategies that may include environmental sanitation, de-worming, and provision and promotion of family planning methods. 2