Iron, folate, and vitamin B12 stores among pregnant women in a rural area of Haryana State, India.

BackgroundIron, folate, and vitamin B12 deficiencies have adverse effects on pregnancy outcome. In India, data on the concomitant prevalence of these deficiencies among pregnant women are meager.ObjectiveWe conducted a community-based study to assess the prevalence of deficiencies of iron, folate, and vitamin B12 among pregnant women in a rural block of Haryana State.MethodsThe study was approved by the ethics committee of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. A total of 283 pregnant women were enrolled in the study. After oral informed consent had been obtained from the women, blood was drawn from the antecubital vein for estimation of the levels of serum ferritin by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (levels < 12 ng/mL were considered as indicative of poor iron stores); serum folate was determined by radioimmunoassay (levels < 3 ng/mL were considered as indicative of poor folate stores); and serum vitamin B12 was estimated by the microbiologic method (levels < 200 pg/mL were considered ...