Enormity of anaemia and its determinant factors among lactating mothers in Northern Ghana: A case of nanton district

Background Anemia remains one of the most severe and common public health conditions that predominantly affects children and women across the globe. It is defined as a condition in which the hemoglobin (Hb) concentration is less than 11.0 g/dl particularly in women. The World health organization report indicated that 20–50% of the world population was affected by iron deficiency anemia. Method An institutional cross-sectional study design was the method used through the data collection and management. Information was sought from four selected health centres across the nanton district with systematic sampling deployed to select respondents of interest. A sample of 420 respondents were obtained and processed for analysis. A bi-variate and multivariate analysis uncovered the associated factors and its predictiveness. Results The prevalence of anaemia in totality was 56.0% (95% CI 51.3%, 60.8%). The divergence of the blood concentration levels between the means of the anaemic and non anaemic group was statistically significance ( F-stat =68.233, t-stat =-35.697, p <0.01). The multivariate statistical model showed that, lactating mothers who have suffered malaria episode(s) after delivery had a 94% chance of being anaemic [ AOR = 0.054; (95% CI : 0.025, 0.119)]. Lack of post-partum iron supplementation increased the risk of having anaemia [ AOR = 15.336; (95% CI : 6.112, 38.483)], and lactating mothers had higher risk [ AOR = 1.927, (95% CI : 1.031, 3.602)] of developing anaemia with increasing ‘child’s age beyond three (3) months. Conclusion Anaemia remains very high in lactating mothers attributable to episodes of postpartum malaria, iron supplementation, and increasing ‘child’s age beyond 3 months. There is the need for public health interventions and measures such as extension of folic acid distribution and Intermittent Preventive Therapy (IPT) for malaria program to mothers at postnatal care and child welfare clinics across the region. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any form of external or internal funding as the whole study was funded by the authors ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The permission and ethical approval for the study were granted by Ghana Health Service and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology ethics committee, respectively. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes The data for this study are readily available and upon request to the authors will be made available