Prevalence of anaemia and Associated Factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in a rural district of Northern Ghana: a cross-sectional study

Anaemia in pregnancy contributes to maternal and perinatal morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa, but facility-level evidence from the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district of the Savannah Region of Ghana is lacking. We conducted a facility-based cross-sectional study of 410 pregnant women attending antenatal care (ANC) at three health facilities, recruited through multistage simple random sampling. Data were collected through interviews. Haemoglobin concentration was determined with the use of venous blood specimens in an automated hematology analyzer, and anaemia was defined using World Health Organization (WHO) trimester-specific thresholds.Chi-square tests and binary logistic regression were used (two-sided p < 0.05). The prevalence of anaemia was 52.2% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 47.2–57.1) among women attending the three facilities. In the multivariable model, women with junior high/middle-level education had significantly lower odds of anaemia than women with no formal education (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.21–0.80), and women who initiated ANC in the second trimester had more than twice the odds of anaemia compared with the first trimester (aOR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.11–4.01). Dietary diversity and the other variables were not significantly associated with anaemia. Anaemia was common in this facility-based sample, but the representativeness of the wider population could not be established. These cross-sectional associations do not establish causation, and the findings support early ANC initiation and anaemia prevention counselling for all pregnant women.