Comparing Serum Haemoglobin (Hb) Levels of Women who Received Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT) with Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine (SP) and their Controls During Antenatal Care (ANC) in a Malaria Endemic Rural African Community

Abstract

BackgroundThe importance of optimal serum Haemoglobin levels during pregnancy need not be further overemphasized since it is a major clinical weapon against the menace of anaemia in pregnancy. Optimal Hb status helps a pregnant woman to enjoy an uneventful pregnancy course as well as avert the problems of anaemia in pregnancy which may include intrauterine growth retardations, preterm births, neonatal anaemias, increased admissions into special care baby units and neonatal deaths.AimThis study compared the serum Haemoglobin levels of women who received Intermittent Preventive Treatment with Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine and their controls during pregnancy.MethodThe study was conducted at Federal Medical Center Owerri, Nigeria. Owerri is typical for malaria endemicity in Africa. Ethical approval was gotten from the ethics committee of FMC, enabling commencement of longitudinal recruitment of participants after adequate counseling and informed consent for both groups. It was a laboratory based, cross‐sectional descriptive study involving 296 participants who satisfied the inclusion criteria for both study groups. Recruited participants were followed up through their antenatal course till delivery enabling collection of blood samples for Haemoglobin estimation which was done using the Cyanmethemoglobin method by Cook, 1985. The principle is that when blood is mixed with a solution containing potassium ferricyanide and potassium cyanide (Drabkin’s solution), the potassium ferricyanide oxidizes iron to form methemoglobin. Potassium cyanide then combines with methemoglobin to form cyanmethemoglobin (HiCN), which is a stable color pigment read photometrically at a wave length of 540nm.Data AnalysisThe data obtained was analyzed using the computer Software Package for Social Science version 20.0 (SPSS, Inc, 2007, Chicago). Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, range, percentages etc) was determined for continuous variables. P‐value less than (<0.05) at 95% confidence interval was considered statistically significant.ResultThe mean haemoglobin value was higher among the study group than the control. Mean Hb of the study group was 14.70 ± 2.34 while the minimum and maximum serum Hb levels were 9.00 and 20.40 respectively. For the control group, the mean Hb was 11.95 ± 2.04 while the minimum and maximum serum Hb levels were 7.20 and 16.70 respectively. From the results, the mean difference of 2.75 was found to be statistically significant; p value= 0.0001; 95% CI =1.275 – 1.647. This implied that evidence of significant effects was found on the Hb levels between the women that took IPT‐SP compared to their controls.Support or Funding InformationNo external funding received for this research. Funds unds were contributed by the authors.