Anemia in pregnant women according to two different assessment criteria (WHO versus CDC)

To determine the prevalence of anemia among pregnant women and the associated factors and perinatal outcomes according to two different diagnostic criteria: the WHO criterion and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criterion.

Cohort study, operationalized through a database. The sample comprised 781 pregnant women who had laboratory data regarding hemoglobin levels during the second trimester of pregnancy. Anemia was diagnosed when hemoglobin was less than 11 g/dl according to WHO and less than 10.5 g/dl according to CDC. Factors possibly associated with anemia were identified by adjusting Poisson univariate and multivariate regression models. To analyze the association between perinatal outcomes and anemia, the χ² test and Fisher exact test were performed.

The prevalence of anemia was 22.9% according to WHO and 10.9% according to CDC. A significantly higher risk of low birth weight was found in children of women with anemia, regardless of the diagnostic criteria used, while a greater risk of having a small-for-gestational-age newborn was seen only when the CDC criterion were applied.

Anemia during pregnancy remains an important public health issue, but its magnitude may be overestimated by overly sensitive assessment criteria.