Pregnant women with anaemia are twice as likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy compared to those without the condition, according to a major international study led by Queen Mary University of London of over 300,000 women across 29 countries.
The research, published in the journal The Lancet Global Health and funded by Barts Charity and the Human Reproduction Programme, suggests that prevention and treatment of maternal anaemia must remain a global public health and research priority.
Anaemia, which is characterised by a lack of healthy red blood cells, affects 32 million pregnant women worldwide, and up to half of all pregnant women in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Women in LMICs are at increased risk of anaemia due to higher rates of dietary iron deficiency, inherited blood disorders, nutrient deficiencies and infections such as malaria, HIV and hookworm.
Lead author Dr Jahnavi Daru from Queen Mary University of London said: "Anaemia in pregnancy is one of the most common medical problems pregnant women encounter both in low and high income countries. We've now shown that if a woman develops severe anaemia at any point in her pregnancy or in the seven days after delivery, she is at a higher risk of dying, making urgent treatment even more important.
"Anaemia is a readily treatable condition but the existing approaches so far have not been able to tackle the problem. Clinicians, policy makers and healthcare professionals should now focus their attention on preventing anaemia, using a multifaceted approach, not just hoping that iron tablets will solve the problem."
The study, which is the largest of its kind, looked at World Health Organization data on 312,281 pregnancies in 29 countries* across Latin America, Africa, Western Pacific, Eastern Mediterranean and South East Asia. Of these, 4,189 women had severe anaemia (a blood count of less than 70 grams per litre of blood) and were matched with 8,218 women without severe anaemia.
Previous studies had suggested that anaemia was strongly associated with death, but that this was due to other clinical reasons, and not anaemia directly. This analysis is the first to take into account factors that influence the development of anaemia in pregnancy (e.g. blood loss or malaria infection) which may have been skewing the results of previous studies.
The study results showed that, when all known contributing factors are controlled for, the odds of maternal death are doubled in mothers with severe anaemia.
The relationship was seen in different geographical areas and using different statistical approaches, which suggests an independent relationship between severe anaemia and maternal death does exist.
Francesca Gliubich, Director of Grants at Barts Charity, said: "Barts Charity are proud of having contributed to this work. The research will help to shape health policies worldwide by providing scientific evidence of the importance of prevention and treatment of maternal anaemia, ultimately saving lives and avoiding preventable deaths."
Strategies for the prevention and treatment of maternal anaemia include providing oral iron tablets for pregnant women, food fortification with iron, improving access to antenatal care in remote areas, hookworm treatment and access to transfusion services.
The study has limitations including its observational nature meaning that a direct causal relationship between severe anaemia and maternal death cannot be proven, because other factors may come into play.
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The study included authors from CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health (Spain), World Health Organization, National Center for Child Health and Development (Japan), Sao Paulo Federal University (Brazil), Fortis Memorial Research Institute (India), Ministry of Health (Sri Lanka), Khon Kaen University (Thailand) and University of Tsukuba (Japan).
For more information, please contact:
Joel Winston
Public Relations Manager - Medicine and Dentistry
Queen Mary University of London
Tel: +44 (0)207 882 7943
Mobile: +44 (0)7970 096 188
j.winston@qmul.ac.uk
Notes to the editor
* The countries included in the study were Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, India, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda, Vietnam.
* Research paper: 'The risk of maternal mortality in women with severe anaemia in pregnancy and the postpartum: a multilevel analysis' by Jahnavi Daru, Javier Zamora, Borja M. Fernández-Félix, Joshua Vogel, Olufemi T. Oladapo, Naho Morisaki, ?zge Tunçalp, Maria Regina Torloni, Suneeta Mittal, Kapila Jayaratne, Pisake Lumbiganon, Ganchimeg Togoobaatar, Shakila Thangaratinam, Khalid S Khan. The Lancet Global Health. Doi 10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30078-0
Available here after embargo lifts: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(18)30078-0/fulltext?elsca1=tlxpr
About Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London is one of the UK's leading universities with 23,120 students representing more than 160 nationalities.
A member of the Russell Group, we work across the humanities and social sciences, medicine and dentistry, and science and engineering, with inspirational teaching directly informed by our research. In the most recent national assessment of the quality of research, we were placed ninth in the UK amongst multi-faculty universities (Research Excellence Framework 2014).
As well as our main site at Mile End - which is home to one of the largest self-contained residential campuses in London - we have campuses at Whitechapel, Charterhouse Square, and West Smithfield dedicated to the study of medicine and dentistry, and a base for legal studies at Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Queen Mary began life as the People's Palace, a Victorian philanthropic project designed to bring culture, recreation and education to the people of the East End. We also have roots in Westfield College, one of the first colleges to provide higher education to women; St Bartholomew's Hospital, one of the first public hospitals in Europe; and The London, one of England's first medical schools.
About Barts Charity
Barts Charity's mission is to fund extraordinary healthcare projects that have the greatest potential to change lives.
We support staff and researchers at the hospitals of Barts Health NHS Trust (Newham, The Royal London, Mile End, St Bartholomew's and Whipps Cross) and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London.
The projects we fund span research, patient care and community initiatives, and all have measurable outcomes that help us work towards our mission.
Visit http://www.bartscharity.org.uk or contact 020 7618 1717 or comms@bartscharity.org.uk for more information.
Journal
The Lancet Global Health