Abstract:
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is one of the public health problems in low and middle
income countries including Ethiopia. It affects women in child bearing age group and primarily effect
to pregnant women. The prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency and associated factors among pregnant
women are urgently important for prioritizing, designing interventional programs aimed at improving
maternal nutrition but in Ethiopia there is limited information about Vitamin A deficiency and
associated factors among pregnant women. Thus, this study intended to identify the prevalence of
Vitamin A deficiency and associated factors among pregnant women in the Haramaya district.
Objective:- This study aimed to assess the prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency and associated factors
among pregnant women in Haramaya district, eastern Oromia, Ethiopia.
Methods:- Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from 5th, January to12thof
February, 2021 on 397 randomly selected pregnant women. Data were collected through interviews
using pretested structured questionnaire and a 5ml venous blood was collected aseptically from the
ante-cubital veins and then aliquot into tubes without anticoagulant to measure serum retinol
concentration. Data were double entered to Epi Data 3.1 and exported to STATA 14 for analysis.
Binary logistic regression was used to assess the association between Serum retinol and independent
variables. The adjusted odds ratios along with a 95 % confidence interval were computed to assess the
strength of the association. Level of statistical significance was declared at p value less than 0.05.
Results:-The prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency was 48.1%, 95% CI: (43.10%-53.12%). Food
Consumption Score [(AOR=0.43, 95% CI:(0.22, 0.83)], Chewing Khat [(AOR=1.69, 95% CI: (1.09-
2.60)], and educational level of husband [(AOR=0.45, 95%CI: (0.23, 0.86)] were significantly
associated with Vitamin A deficiency.
Conclusion and Recommendation:-Vitamin A deficiency was sever public health problem
among pregnant women in Haramaya district. Those pregnant women who chewed Khat more likely to
develop VAD but those pregnant women who had acceptable Food Consumption Score and had
educated husband who can read and write less likely to develop VAD when compared with others.
Therefore, avoiding chewing Khat during pregnancy, improving women education, appropriate feeding
practice, food diversity and continue further studies using all the available Vitamin A biomarkers to
elucidate the potential risk factors of Vitamin A deficiency among pregnant women