Interrelatıons Of Tea Consumptıon, Smokıng, Stress and Parıty Wıth Maternal Anemıa and Bırth Weıght

Abstract

In this work, the relationships of tea consumption, smoking, stress and parity with anemia in pregnant women and also the effect of these factors on birth weight were investigated. The study was planned on a longitudinal basis with 130 pregnant women who visited 10 health centres in Istanbul and Kocaeli. The first stage of the investigation was carried out when the women were at their 12-18th week of pregnancy, the second at their 28-32nd week of pregnancy and the third at the 12-18th weeks following birth. Information on tea consumption, smoking, stress and parity was obtained by completing a questionnaire during an interview. To assess the level of anemia, hemoglobin, hematocrit, iron, ferritin and transferrin levels were determined in blood taken from the women at .ne three different stages. The evaluation of data showed no significant correlations between tea consumption and anemia indicators or birth weight. Although there were noticeable negative relationships between smoking and hemoglobin/hematocrit levels in women in all off the three stages, these were not statistically significant. An important positive correlation was found between parity and stress (r=0.23, p<0.01). Parity did not show any correlations with anemia indicators except for the negative correlation with serum iron levels at the 28-32nd week of pregnancy (r= -0.24, p<0.05). A number of significant and interesting relationships were observed between different anemia indicators at all the three stages of investigation.