International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | October 2022 | Vol 9 | Issue 10 Page 3824 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Mangla D et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2022 Oct;9(10):3824-3829 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Risk factors of severe anemia among the pregnant women from an underprivileged rural area of northern India: a multivariate analysis Divya Mangla 1 , Sheetal Gole 2 , Nikhil Bansal 1 , Sushma Yadav 1 *, Ravinder Kharolia 1 , Abhishek Singh 3 INTRODUCTION India still remains a home to 45.7% of anemic pregnant women (aged 15-49) with anemia of any grade during the course of their pregnancy. 1 Moreover anemia in pregnancy among Indian women have remained stubbornly resistant to improvement despite multiple efforts. Anemia in pregnancy is recognized as a major public health problem in India leading to high maternal morbidity and mortality, low birth-weight and high infant mortality. 2 In our country, 16% of maternal deaths are directly due to anemia. 3 In addition to being a medical condition, anemia is an important socio-economic issue. A complex relationship of political, ecological, social, and biological factors determines the prevalence of anemia in a population. The most common cause of anemia in pregnancy worldwide is iron deficiency. ABSTRACT Background: India serves as a home to 45.7% of anemic pregnant women (aged 15-49) with anemia of any grade during the course of their pregnancy. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of anemia and associated risk factors of severe anemia among pregnant women. Methods: Eligible antenatal women irrespective of period of gestation were screened for presence of anemia with help of hemoglobin (Hb) value at the time of admission. Typing of anemia was done. Detailed history was followed by physical examination. Univariate and multivariate analysis was done to study the risk factors of severe anemia among the study subjects. Results: Of total, 22.1% women were found to be severely anemic. Severely anemic women having residence in a rural area without road had odds more than twice (AOR=2.14) compared to severely anemic women having residence in a rural area connected with road (p=0.018). Similarly, severely anemic women aged <25 years (AOR=2.70), Illiterate (AOR=3.12), marriage age <18 years (AOR=2.33), having age at 1 st pregnancy as <19 years (AOR=1.93), undergone ≤3 ANC visits (AOR=3.95). Anemic women with gravida score ≥4 had more than 4 times risk (AOR=4.15) . Conclusions: The significant risk factors of severe anemia among pregnant women as observed in this study were having residence in a rural area without road, age <25 years, illiteracy of mother, marriage age (<18 years in completed years), age at 1st pregnancy as <19 years, ≤3 ANC visits, gravidity ≥4 and non-sanitary type toilet facility at home. Keywords: Anemia, Maternal, Prevalence, Pregnancy 1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2 Department of Pathology, 3 Department of Social and Preventive Medicine SHKM Government Medical College, Nuh, Haryana, India Received: 17 August 2022 Accepted: 19 September 2022 *Correspondence: Dr. Sushma Yadav, E-mail: drsushmagynae@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20222578