Underlying factors associated with anaemia among women aged 15-49 in Southern Province and Kigali City of Rwanda: A secondary data analysis of 2014/15 Rwanda Demographic and Health Surveys (RDHS)

Abstract

Abstract Background: The increasing prevalence of anaemia from 17% in 2010 and 19% in 2014/15 (1– 3), among women aged 15-49 in Rwanda shows that Anaemia is still a public health concern and if not addressed, it will continue to have a negative health, social and economic consequences. However, there still gaps in availability of evidence about the underlying risk factors associated with anaemia among women in reproductive age which need to be addressed while implementing public health interventions. Methodology: This study was a quantitative, cross-sectional study using secondary data analysis of Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RHDHS) 2014-2015. The outcome for this study was anaemia status and 2,650 women in reproductive age who had haemoglobin results and anaemia status were included in this study. Analysis was presented in frequency and Logistic regression was used to test the association between anaemia and exposures. Significant variables were assessed using odds ratio (OR), their 95% confidence interval (CI) and p-value <0.05. Stata v.13 was used for analysis and were applied in all steps of the analysis. Results: The results from this study demonstrated that in the Southern province, being poor was highly associated with being anaemic [OR=2.04 (95% CI: 1.55-2.68), p=0.000]. Users of modern family planning methods had more risks of having anaemia in the Southern province [OR=1.44(95% CI: 1.05-1.97), p=0.023] as well as Kigali city [OR=1.92(95% CI: 1.22-2.01), p=0.004]. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that few factors were found to be associated with anaemia among women of reproductive age in both provinces. Using family planning methods was found to be a shared determinant of having anaemia among women in reproductive age in both the Southern province and Kigali city, while the only found specific risk factor of having anaemia among women of reproductive age in the Southern province was being in poor index wealth category.