Compliance to iron and folic acid tablets among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Agartala Government Medical College

INTRODUCTION: Anemia is a public health problem worldwide, and in pregnancy, the main cause of anemia is nutritional. Non-compliance to iron and folic acid supplement plays a role in the high prevalence of anemia in pregnant women. OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to find out the proportion of compliance to iron and folic acid tablets (IFA) among pregnant women and to determine factors associated with it. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 240 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Agartala Govt. Medical College, from 15(th) June to 14(th) September 2019. Subjects were recruited through consecutive sampling. A pretested, predesigned, semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect information. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15.0. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to find out the association of compliance with independent variables. P value of < 0.05 was considered as significant. RESULTS: Majority (56.3%) of the participants were in the age group of 20–29 years and were housewives (92.1%), Hindu (93.8%), and completed secondary education (34.6%). The proportion of compliance to IFA among pregnant women was 52.5% (n = 126), and the reason for non-compliance (n = 114) in the majority was side effects of IFA (35.09%), followed by forgetfulness (28.07%). Factors like age, religion, education, socio-economic status, birth order, number of antenatal visits, or number of IFA consumed daily have not shown any significant association with this compliance. CONCLUSION: This study highlighted that only around half of the pregnant women are compliant with IFA, and this situation demands for information education and communication activities to generate awareness.