PREVALENCE OF ANAEMIA AND NUTRITIONAL AWARENESS AMONG RURAL PREGNANT WOMEN

A study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of anaemia and nutritional awareness among pregnant women in the age group of 16 to 30 years from three villages of Parbhani Tahsil, Maharashtra, India. Base line data of respondents was collected using pre structured survey schedule and haemoglobin content was estimated by Cyanamethaemoglobin method. Findings showed that 62.22 percent pregnant women were from joint families and 45.56 percent of respondents had only one earning member in their family. Majority (94.44%) of the respondents was educated, most of them were involved in the farming (51.11%) and 46.67 percent of subjects had insufficient crops from their own land. Mean haemoglobin content was 9.18 g/dl. More than 90 percent respondents were anaemic. Prevalence of mild, moderate and severe anaemia among the subjects was 47.78, 34.44 and 8.89 percent respectively. All most all subjects knew that green leafy vegetables should be included in the diet but more than half of them (57.78 %) didn't know the reason for consumption. Practice of washing vegetables after cutting was followed by 64.44 per cent subjects. None of the subjects had knowledge regarding the causes, ill effects, identification and preventive measures of anaemia. This study substantiates the existence of mild to severe form of anaemia and poor nutritional awareness among rural pregnant women and underlines the need for nutrition education.