Socio‐economic and dietary diversity characteristics are associated with anemia among pregnant women attending antenatal care services in public health centers of Kembata Tembaro Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Anemia affects every country in the world including Ethiopia. It costs the socio‐economic developments due to its health impacts. This study was aimed to determine socio‐demographic and dietary diversity and other factors associated with anemia among pregnant women in Kembata Tembaro Zone. Institution‐based cross‐sectional study design was employed. Data were collected from 423 pregnant women. Hemoglobin level was measured by Hemocue. Pretested interviewer‐administered close‐ended questionnaire was used to collect the data. Analysis was done using SPSS for windows version 20. Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted. We found that overall prevalence of anemia was 18%. Less than half (43.3%) of the respondents visited the health centers for antenatal care follow‐up at least once during their pregnancy time. Only 20.1% consumed more than five food preceding 24 hr. 59.3% of the respondents were taking iron supplements during data collection time. Anemia was significantly associated with the lowest wealth index, formal education, women's occupation, husband occupation, low dietary diversity, and inadequate intake of iron‐rich foods, history of malaria infection, maternal age, and parity. Anemia was of mild public health concern in the study area. The uptake of antenatal care service for the recommended number of visits and iron folic acid supplementation and the diet diversity was low in the pregnant women. The prevalence of anemia was mild public health concern. The early and timely uptake of iron folic acid supplementation was poor. Dietary diversity and consumption of iron‐rich foods was found to be low. Thus, community mobilization and health education to improve the uptake of the antenatal care services, increase micronutrient intake through food based and control of infections are recommended.