Impact of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Anemia status among women in coastal Kochi, Kerala

Abstract

Anemia is considered to be a direct cause of 3-7% of maternal deaths and an indirect cause of 20-40% of maternal deaths. The present study explored knowledge, attitudes, and practices of reproductive age women regarding anemia in a coastal area of Ernakulum district. The subjects were reproductive aged adult women selected from the different coastal wards in coastal Kochi, Kerala. The standardised KAP questions on Iron Deficiency anemia was adopted from FAO Guidelines (Macias and Glasauer, 2014).Haemoglobin was assessed by Cyanmethemoglobin method. Majority (72.6 %) of the subjects in the total population were anemic. Knowledge level of subjects was not significantly correlated with their Haemoglobin levels. However, there was a highly significant (1% level) positive correlation between Attitude scores of subjects and Haemoglobin levels. Significant (5% level) positive correlation was found between Practice Scores of subjects and Haemoglobin levels also.