Effect of an educational intervention on anemia in pregnancy

Summary: Anaemia in pregnancy is a worldwide phenomena and it is also widely prevalent in Oman among pregnant women. The literature from the Arab countries gives a strong evidence that anemia is still an existing problem. There is no sufficient evidence in literature related to intervention done to prevent anaemia in pregnancy so it is imperative to investigate the effect of nutritional education programme in combating anaemia in pregnancy. The main Goal of this study is to build on previous works on anaemia and help to identify trends in anaemia that care for pregnant women in Oman. The study will contribute to an establishment of a tailored anemia intervention that will bring about the specific behavior change in terms of knowledge of women and their dietary modification. Plan of Investigation Pretest posttest control group experimental design The study will be conducted recruiting antenatal women from two hospitals of Muscat region Sixty antenatal women fulfilling the sample criteria will be taken in each group by convenience sampling and randomly allocated to experimental and control group. Reliable and Validated Instruments for Data collection will be used A written informed consent with statement of confidentiality will be taken from each participant. Individual privacy will be ensured . Approval from ethics committee will be sought. Research Assistance will be trained and involved in the study Data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics by a biostatistician Imporatnce in General : The study in general will have a significant added knowledge to the Global situation of anaemia and strengthen evidence for efficacy since the available trails on educational intervention for anaemia prevention are very minimal. In addition it has indirect effect on the productivity of future generation since the group targeted are pregnant women who are responsible for giving birth to healthy newborns. Importance to Oman: Anaemia having high prevalence in Oman among pregnant women there is no current standardized educational intervention available to minimize this problem . Apart from having health effect anemia also poses social and economical impact on the nation. Healthy mother will give rise to healthy nation. The study will help to bring about a policy decision nationwide and implement educational strategies in every setting so as improve maternal health and increase national productivity.