Prevalence of anemia and related factors among women in Turkey

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of anemia and related factors among women in Turkey. METHODS: This descriptive study was conducted at the outpatient clinics of the Department of Internal Medicine, Ege University Medical School. Randomly selected women were given questionnaires regarding their socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics. The data were coded and analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 software. Statistical analyses with 95% confidence intervals were considered to be significant if p<0.05. RESULTS: The study results showed an anemia prevalence of 27.8% in the study sample. Among all anemia diagnoses among the participants, 56.0% were determined to have iron deficiency, 37.1% iron-deficiency anemia, and 6.9% severe anemia. It was observed that anemia was detected among women who were 15-49 years of age (p<0.05), menstruating (p<0.05), had a history of Cesarean section (p<0.05), and had not entered menopause (p<0.05). Based on forward-stepwise-logistic regression analysis, the most important parameter was concluded to be age group, which was followed by menopausal status. CONCLUSIONS: The study results suggest that the anemia prevalence rate is specifically higher among women of reproductive age. To prevent anemia at a low cost, it is recommended to provide women with relevant information and well-planned interactive educational programs.