Predictors of Anemia among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Public Hospitals of Sidama Region, Ethiopia, 2021 a Case Control Study Protocol

Background: Anemia is the main cause of morbidity and mortality among pregnant women in developing countries with maternal and fetal consequences, which leads to premature births, low birth weight, fetal cognitive impairment and death.

Objective: To determine predictors of anemia among pregnant women attending ANC at public hospitals of Sidama region, Ethiopia, 2021.

Methods and Materials: A facility based unmatched case-control study design will be conducted at public hospitals of Sidama region. A total of 6 Midwives, 6 laboratory technician and 6 supervisors will be involved in the data collection process. Cases will be recruited consecutively as they present to the hospitals and immediately four controls will be allocated for each case that came after selection of cases.

The data will be entered into Epidata software and exported to SPSS software for windows version 23 for analysis. Descriptive statistics will be computed and both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression will be employed to identify predictors of anemia among pregnant women. The output will be presented using adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with the respective 95% confidence interval (CI).

Budget and Work Plan: A total of 184,928 Ethiopian Birr will be required to carry out this study. The data collection will be conducted from June 25 to July 25, 2021.