Exploring Unknown Predictors of Maternal Anemia Among Tribal Lactating Mothers, Andhra Pradesh, India: A Prospective Cohort Study

INTRODUCTION: Anemia is a serious public health issue in India, especially among women, adolescent girls, and young children. Tribal people reside mostly in remote underserved regions with little or no basic civic amenities which makes them a highly vulnerable group of Indians. The study aimed to identify unknown risk factors for anemia among tribal lactating mothers. METHODOLOGY: It was a mixed method prospective cohort study for 10 months carried out among 340 scheduled tribes (ST) mothers in 10 clusters in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Data collection using a questionnaire, 24 hours dietary recall, anthropometric measurement, and hemoglobin estimation was done. Weekly local recipe talk in the mother’s kitchen, informal group discussions, was conducted for 12 weeks after baseline data collection. The audio and video tapes of the weekly local recipe talk in the mothers kitchen were transcribed verbatim and then translated into English. The individual responses were grouped as barriers related to acceptability, availability, accessibility, use and utilization, appropriateness, and nutrition environment. RESULTS: A total of 340 mothers were enrolled initially of which 315 mothers were studied in an end-line survey with an attrition rate of 7.3%. Over 80% mothers belonged to Yerukula, Yenadis, Lambadi/Sugali tribes, respectively. A total of 345 weekly local mother kitchen recipe talks were conducted in 10 clusters. In the present study, only few mothers mentioned food accessibility and availability issues. Surprisingly, lack of skill to cook the commonly consumed local food item among Indian mothers were recorded. Lack of time for cooking, lack of knowledge of nutritious benefits of food, and use of ready to eat food were other important key findings. CONCLUSION: The study documents initiation of transition of the tribal lactating mothers towards urbanization. The lack of knowledge of cooking, coupled with lifestyles of urban areas exposes the early aged, poor, low literate mothers to the trap of anemia.