ANEMIA AND IRON-DEFICIENCY IN 490 MEXICAN PREGNANT-WOMEN

Objective. To explore correlations of sociobiological variables with l evels of blood hemoglobin (HB) in 490 pregnant women. Setting. Women a ttending private practice and two public hospitals in the city of Leon , State of Guanajuato (1800 m above sea level). Material and methods. Demographic, obstetric, nutritional and socioeconomic data were obtain ed together with an EDTA-blood sample for CBC, and serum for metabolit e assays. The women had a mean gestation of 25 weeks (range 4-40) and 65% were multiparous with a mean parity of 2.1. By Mexican standards t hey had fairly high social, nutritional and intergenesic lapse. Associ ations were explored by step-wise multiple ANOVA. Results. On the basi s of HB <12 g/dL (equivalent aprox to 11 at sea level), 37% of the wom en were considered anemic. The MANOVA (excluding iron deficiency) show ed associations of HB with gestation (p<0.001) and parity (p=0.024). I ron deficiency was present in 76% of the anemics (136/180) and 31% of the non-anemics (97/310). Folate and vitamin B12 assays in women with anemia and no iron deficiency showed folate or B12 deficiency in only 33% (14/43) leaving 29 cases with anemia of unknown etiology. Conclusi ons. 1. Gestation age was the factor most strongly associated to anemi a and iron deficiency in our sample. 2. Anemia and iron deficiency wer e seen in 37% (N=180) and 48% (N=233) of the women respectively. 3. Of the 180 anemic women, 76% (N=136) were iron deficient but only 14/43 anemic without iron deficiency were folate or B12 deficient leaving 6% (29/490) with anemia of unknown etiology. 4. The prevalence of anemia and iron deficiency were high in our population in spite of its fairl y good sociodemographic and nutritional conditions.