Abstract:
Objective This study aimed to assess the prevalence
and determinants of anaemia among lactating and non-lactating
women in low-income
and middle-income
countries (LMICs).
Design Comparative cross-sectional
study.
Setting LMICs.
Participants Reproductive-age
women.
Primary outcome Anaemia.
Methods Data for the study were drawn from the recent
46 LMICs Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). A
total of 185 330 lactating and 827 501 non-lactating
women (both are non-pregnant)
who gave birth in the last
5 years preceding the survey were included. STATA V.16
was used to clean, code and analyse the data. Multilevel
multivariable logistic regression was employed to identify
factors associated with anaemia. In the adjusted model,
the adjusted OR with 95% CI and a p value <0.05 was
reported to indicate statistical association.
Result The prevalence of anaemia among lactating and
non-lactating
women was found at 50.95% (95% CI
50.72, 51.17) and 49.33% (95% CI 49.23%, 49.44%),
respectively. Maternal age, mother’s educational
status, wealth index, family size, media exposure,
residence, pregnancy termination, source of drinking
water and contraceptive usage were significantly
associated determinants of anaemia in both lactating
and non-lactating
women. Additionally, the type of toilet
facility, antenatal care visit, postnatal care visit, iron
supplementation and place of delivery were factors
significantly associated with anaemia in lactating women.
Besides, smoking was significantly associated with
anaemia in non-lactating
women.
Conclusions and recommendations The prevalence
of anaemia was higher in lactating women compared
with non-lactating.
Almost half of the lactating and non-lactating
women were anaemic. Both individual-level
and
community-level
factors were significantly associated with
anaemia. Governments, non-governmental
organisations,
healthcare professionals and other stakeholders are
recommended to primarily focus on disadvantageous
communities where their knowledge, purchasing power,
access to healthcare facilities, access to clean drinking
water and clean toilet facilities are minimal.
