Adherence to iron with folic acid supplementation in women attending an antenatal clinic at a low-income urban area in Delhi, India

Abstract

Introduction: Adherence to Iron-Folic Acid Supplementation (IFAS) in pregnant women can safeguard them against nutritional anemia and the related adverse pregnancy outcomes. The objective of this study was to assess the adherence to oral IFAS in women attending an antenatal clinic in an urban resettlement colony of Delhi, India. Material and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study and enrolled 211 antenatal women through consecutive sampling during a 4-month period from December 2018 to April 2019. IFAS adherent status was defined as women taking ≥80% of their prescribed IFAS in the previous 7 days, equivalent to IFAS intake for at least 6 days in the previous week. We also estimated adequacy of IFAS drug stocks with the patient during the past 30 days. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 25. A P Results: The mean (± standard deviation) age of the women was 24.6 (±3.4) years, ranging from 19 to 35 years. Median years of education was 11, and all the women were currently married. A total of 54 (25.6) women reported being non-adherent to their prescribed IFA medication. Only 175 (82.9%) women had adequate IFAS stocks during the past 30 days. On adjusted analysis, running out of IFAS stocks was a significant predictor of IFAS non-adherence (P = 0.004). Conclusion: The present study indicates that adherence to IFAS among pregnant women is suboptimal. Non-adherence was usually because of running out of drug-stocks but rarely due to drug side-effects.