Abstract:
Background: Anemia affects one-quarter of the world’s population and women are one of the
groups it concentrated in, making it a global public health problem. It has a number of impacts in
non-pregnant women of childbearing age including reduce working capacity, impaired immunity
and beginning pregnancy with depleted iron store and/or hemoglobin concentration.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine prevalence and risk factors of anemia among
non-pregnant women of childbearing age in Jimma town, south west Ethiopia.
Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Jimma town from June
26 - August 27, 2013. Four hundred forty one representative non-pregnant women of childbearing
age were participated in the study. Socio demographic and related data were collected using
structured questionnaire. Four ml of venous blood and five gm of stool samples were collected from
each study participant. Blood samples were used for complete blood cell count, red cell
morphology and hemoparasites. Complete blood cell count was done by CELL-DYN® 1800
(Abbott, USA) for the determination of red cell and hemoglobin parameters. Stool samples were
checked for intestinal parasites using both direct wet mount and formol-ether concentration
techniques. All descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression and multiple logistic regression
analysis were performed using SPSS-V 16 software.
Result: The overall prevalence of anemia was 71(16.1%) with mean hemoglobin concentration of
12.96 g/dl (± 1.04) among which 69 were mildly anemic. In morphological types of anemia
normocytic normochromic anemia took the highest proportion. Being from 25-36 years old (AOR =
6.53, 95% C.I: 1.82 – 23.39; P = 0.016), lower economic level (AOR = 18.84, 95% C.I: 6.47 –
54.91; P < 0.0001), illiteracy (AOR = 2.16, 95% C.I: 1.67 - 5.18; P= 0.005), multiparty (P <
0.0001), having intestinal parasitic infection (AOR = 3.34 95% C.I: 1.66 - 6.73; P = 0.001), usage
of more than two sanitary pads per day during menstruation (AOR = 3.03 95% C.I: 1.43 - 6.41; P
= 0.004) and low body mass index (AOR = 4.07, 95% C.I: 1.69 – 9.84; P = 0.002) were found to be
risk factors for anemia. But knowledge about anemia and current contraceptive use were identified
as they have protective effect.
Conclusions and recommendations: In the present study, the prevalence of anemia indicated mild
public health importance. It needs a consideration of risk factors identified for prevention and
control of anemia among non-pregnant women of childbearing age.
