Non-Adherence to Iron/Folate Supplementation and Associated Factors among Pregnant Women who Attending Antenatal Care Visit in Selected Public Health Institutions at Hosanna Town, Southern Ethiopia, 2016

Background: Iron supplementation alone or in combination with folic acid is the strategy to alleviate iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy. However, non-adherence is an issue for not reducing the problem in these populations.Objective: To determine non-adherence to Iron/Folate Supplementation and associated factors among pregnant women who attending antenatal care visit in selected public health institutions at Hosanna Town, Southern Ethiopia.Methodology: The study was conducted at public health facilities found in Hossana town, southern part of Ethiopia. An institutional based cross-sectional study design was performed. Randomly selected three hundred and sixty five women were included in the study. Collected data were edited, coded and entered to Epi info version 3.1 and exported to` SPSS version 20. The association of every independent variable with the response variable was evaluated using bivariate analysis. Statistically significant variables were considered in the multivariate model using SPSS version 20.Results: Among women participated in the study, 30.41% were non adherent to iron/folate supplementation. Compared to women aged 15-24 years, women above 35 years of age 4.16 (95% CI: 1.24, 3.95) had higher non adherence. Women who didn’t get nutrition counseling 3.19 (95% CI: 1.16, 3.74) and women lacking knowledge of anemia 16 (95% CI: 4.34, 6.92) were associated with a higher likely hood of non-adherence.Conclusions and recommendations: Considerable proportion of pregnant women was non-adhered. Age, income, knowledge about hemoglobin status, knowledge about anemia and nutritional counseling were significant predictors for non-adherence. Therefore, promoting the benefits of iron/folic supplementation, increasing the awareness of women about anemia and nutrition counseling through health education activities is vital for decreasing non adherence.