A Study To Assess The Knowledge Of Antenatal Women With Regard To Anaemia In Pregnancy In Selected Hospital At Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh.

Anaemia during pregnancy is a biggest challenge faced by the world today, especially in the developing countries. Anaemia in pregnancy is one of the leading causes for maternal mortality, morbidity and to the low birth weight babies, which in turn increases infant mortality rate. Many epidemiologoical studies in the past have reported the problem in high magnitude, even various programmes started by government of India. The main aim of the study was to assess the knowledge of antenatal women regarding anaemia.

A Descriptive design was used to assess the knowledge of antenatal women regarding anaemia in pregnancy in selected hospital at Guntur District. Sample for this study was 100 antenatal women; and participants were selected by Convenient sampling technique. Structured checklist was prepared with two sections i.e., Part-A consisting of questions on demographic variables and Part –B consisting check list with knowledge items on anaemia during pregnancy. Antenatal women answered knowledge items on anaemia during preganancy. Their responses were tabulated, organized, analysed and interpreted by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results showed that only 10% of antenatal women had adequate knowledge, 40% of antenatal women had moderate knowledge and 50% of antenatal women had inadequate knowledge about anaemia during pregnancy. There was a significant asssociation between the knowledge of antenatal women with their Family income (χ²=13.07), Religion (χ²=51.65), Family type (χ²= 28.92), Area of living (χ²=63.82) at 0.05 level of significance.

Based on the study results it was concluded that majority of the antenatal women had inadequate knowledge. Hence there is need to improve knowledge and information about anaemia during pregnancy.