Abstract
Background
Anaemia is one indicator of poor health in women and responsible for substantial mortality. Assessing the relative impact of predictors for anaemia among women could help to prioritize targeted preventions strategies. This study aimed to quantify the attributable burden of modifiable factors for different severity levels of anaemia among Ethiopian women.
Methods
Adjusted odds ratio and exposure prevalence for selected factors were used to calculate population attributable fractions using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys data. Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed using multilevel multinomial regression models.
Results
In Ethiopia, an estimated 14.6% (95% confidence interval, CI: 3.4, 24.5) of mild anaemia was attributable to no formal education, 11.2% (95%CI: 1.2, 19.9) to high gravidity (≥ 4) and 5.2% (95%CI: 0, 10.7) to currently breastfeeding. Similarly, proportion of moderate-severe anaemia attributable to rural residence was 38.1% (95%CI: 15.9, 54.8), poorest wealth quantile was 12.6% (95%CI: 2.9, 24.6), previous five years birth was 10.5% (95%CI: 2.9, 18.2), and unimproved latrine was 17% (95% CI: 0, 32.5).
Conclusions
The result suggests that low education, low wealth status, high parity, rural residency, pregnancy and breastfeeding contribute substantially to the occurrence of anaemia among women.
Key messages
Mild anaemia could be reduced by setting intervention strategies targeting women with low education, multigravida women, and breastfeeding women, while preventing moderate-to-severe anaemia may require increasing income, and improving living environments like hygienic latrines.