Studies on Malaria Parasite and Haemoglobin Level among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal at Benue State General Hospital, Otukpo, Nigeria

A study was conducted to investigate the relationship between malaria and anaemia in pregnant women attending antenatal care at General Hospital Otukpo. A total of three hundred and fifty (350) pregnant women who granted informed consent were recruited for the study. Demographic information such as their age, number of previous pregnancies and age of present pregnancy were collected using structured questionnaire. Blood samples collected by venipuncture were used to prepare Giemsa-stained smears for determination of the presence of malaria parasite in the pregnant women while haemoglobin level was read on a Hawksley microhaematocrit reader using blood samples collected into capillary tubes and centrifuged at 3000rpm. Collected data were analysed using SPSS version 20. Results showed that malaria was higher in the youngest (80.4%) and oldest (66.7%) age groups while anaemia was higher in the younger age groups of 15 – 20 (78.4%) and 21 – 26 (40.9%). Malaria, anaemia and combination of both were highest in primigravid (84.0%, 86.0% and 82.0%) and least in multigravid (34.0%, 10.5% and 9.0%) and age of pregnancy was found to influence the rate of malaria (X 2 (2) 85.469 = .000), anaemia (X 2 (2) 22.450 = .000). A statistically significant difference was also observed between the haemoglobin level of malaria infected and non-infected pregnant women (p<0.05) and age group 27-33 years was observed to have had the widest difference between the Hb level in malaria infected (29%) and the non-infected (37%) pregnant women. The study posits that a large population of pregnant women in the study area may be at risk of malaria and anaemia related problems associated with child bearing and underscores the need for integrated prevention and control measures to reduce mortality and morbidity in pregnant women.