Determinants of Compliance with Iron Supplementation among Pregnant Women in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Oman

Introduction: Anemia in pregnancy is one of the most common widespread public health problems in the world and it remains as emerging problem in the developing countries and is an important indicator for maternal mortality and morbidity in the Middle East. Objective: This study aimed to determine the level of compliance with iron supplementation and its determinants among pregnant women. Methods: The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional research design. Noronha compliance questionnaire was used to determine the level of compliance to iron supplementation and its determinants. One hundred and sixty five Omani pregnant women of 20 weeks of gestation and above visiting antenatal outpatient department were the participants of the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed that 72.7% of the women were compliant and 27.3% of them were non-compliant to iron supplementation. A chi-square test showed that there was a significant relationship between side effect and non-compliance to iron supplementation X2 (1, N = 165) = 6.53, P < 0.05. Results of Logistic regression analysis showed that side effects of iron supplementation significantly predicted the non-compliance to iron supplementation b = -1.76, Wald X2 (165) = 8.36, P < 0.05. Conclusion: Increasing awareness among the pregnant women on the importance of iron supplementation during pregnancy is essential to expect desirable outcomes in both the mother and the newborn.