Iron status, iron supplementation and anemia in pregnancy: ethnic differences

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the anemia prevalence during pregnancy and the use of and response to iron supplementation in a multi-ethnic population as well as the possible association between anemia and birth outcomes (pregnancy duration, birth weight). Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted in a university hospital (Brussels, Belgium) in 341 women. Hemoglobin, ferritin and iron prescription data were extracted from the patients’ electronic dossiers; a questionnaire was used to assess iron intake during pregnancy. Results: Anemia prevalence was higher during the 3rd trimester (24.3%) than in the 1st trimester (6.2%). Arab/Turkish women had a higher prevalence of anemia (9.1%) in the 1st trimester compared to Western women (2.4%; p = 0.044). The frequency of iron prescription was significantly higher among Arab/Turkish (43.7%) compared to Western women (27.9%; p = 0.006). A significantly lower mean birth weight was found among women presenting with anemia in the 1st trimester (3166 g) compared to non anemic women (3442 g; p = 0.036) but no significant difference was detected in mean pregnancy duration between both groups (p = 0.804). Conclusions: Anemia was more prevalent among Arab/Turkish women in spite of receiving more iron prescriptions than Western women. Efficient iron therapy and intensive follow-up are warranted to decrease the anemia prevalence during pregnancy, especially among non-Western women.

Keywords::

• Arab women
• birth weight
• ethnicity

Acknowledgement

We thank Prof. Dr. Walter Foulon, head of the Obstetrics department at the UZ Brussel hospital. Our thanks also go to Dr Eleonora Jansen from the Obstetrics department for helping with the data collection, to the women who participated in the study and to the midwifery of the hospital’s antenatal clinic for their assistance in distributing and collecting the questionnaires. We are grateful to the pharmacist Seham Zaitoon for her help in the data entry. We thank the Erasmus Mundus organization for funding this research.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no declarations of interest.