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Home » Topics » Nutrition and Anthropometry » Women's anemia status
Women's anemia status [message #516] Wed, 05 June 2013 15:26 Go to next message
estammer is currently offline  estammer
Messages: 9
Registered: March 2013
Member

Hi,

I am putting together an indicator reference sheet for Women's Anemia Status and have a question about how it is calculated in pregnant women. I saw in at least on DHS report that the CDC 1998 criteria are used. The CDC criteria include different cutoffs for women at various gestational ages. Does the DHS indicator take gestational age cutoffs into consideration for anemia in pregnant women? Thanks for your help!

Emily
Re: Women's anemia status [message #567 is a reply to message #516] Tue, 25 June 2013 10:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Liz-DHS
Messages: 1516
Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
Dear User,
You may want to refer to The Guide to DHS Statistics. http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/DHSG1/Guide_to_DHS_Statis tics_29Oct2012_DHSG1.pdf
the document is bookmarked. Under "Maternal and Child Health" you will find information on how to calculate women's anemia status and other related indicators.
Re: Women's anemia status [message #586 is a reply to message #516] Wed, 26 June 2013 10:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
estammer is currently offline  estammer
Messages: 9
Registered: March 2013
Member

Hi, thanks for your reply. I have checked out the Guide to DHS Statistics and unfortunately, I still have questions.

the Guide says this: "Pregnancy causes an increase in blood fluid diluting somewhat the concentration of hemoglobin. Therefore the cutoff for mild anemia is lowered for pregnant women. No adjustment is made for the cutoff values for either moderate or severe anemia. Because the availability of oxygen is less at higher altitudes (lower partial pressures) and because smoking interferes with the blood's capacity to transfer oxygen, adjustments need to be made for both altitude and smoking."

From this, I understand that there is an adjustment for mild anemia in pregnant women, but I am not sure if this adjustment is made by gestational age, trimester or if there is one adjustment made for pregnant women as a whole.

For example, if a woman was 20 weeks pregnant, according to the CDC criteria, she would NOT be considered mildly anemic because the threshold is 10.5. However, when looking at the thresholds used in DHS report tables (<11.0 for pregnant women), it appears as though she WOULD be considered mildly anemic.

I have attached the CDC table I am referring to that is quoted in the "DHS guide to statistics". The DHS report I am referring to is Bangladesh 2011.


Thanks again for your help with this!

Emily
Re: Women's anemia status [message #587 is a reply to message #586] Thu, 27 June 2013 09:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
estammer is currently offline  estammer
Messages: 9
Registered: March 2013
Member

Sorry, i left out a key number in my example that makes the example worthless. Here is what I meant to say:

For example, if a woman was 20 weeks pregnant with a hemoglobin count of 10.6 g/dl, according to the CDC criteria, she would NOT be considered mildly anemic because the threshold is 10.5. However, when looking at the thresholds used in DHS report tables (<11.0 for pregnant women), it appears as though she WOULD be considered mildly anemic.
Re: Women's anemia status [message #602 is a reply to message #587] Fri, 05 July 2013 10:53 Go to previous message
Trevor-DHS is currently offline  Trevor-DHS
Messages: 787
Registered: January 2013
Senior Member
DHS does not make any adjustment for trimester of pregnancy, but rather uses the more conservative adjustment of 1 g/dl for all pregnant women. This is partly due to the historical series that DHS reports and partly due to uncertainty of the accuracy of the trimester of pregnancy.
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