The primary healthcare recommendation is that regular scheduled screenings and supplementations for iron deficiency anemia in asymptomatic non-anemic pregnant women could result in a boost in both maternal and fetal outcomes of health (Gantor et al., 2015). This is occasioned by the fact that anemia and, by extension, iron deficiency anemia is the commonest medical condition in pregnancy due to increased iron demand load on the mother by the growing fetus and expanded maternal blood volume.
Existing evidence does not show that routine supplementation of mothers prenatally with iron to manage iron deficiency anemia improves maternal clinical outcomes. The evidence is also inconclusive in determining whether infant clinical health outcomes improve with iron supplementation prenatally. The health outcomes include birth weights, APGAR Scores, the period of gestation, among others. However, evidence suggests a benefit to maternal hematological indices in so far as supplementation is concerned.
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Besides, recommendations also made on the need for further research on long-run health impacts of regular scheduled iron supplementations in pregnancies, the clinical significance of short-term hematologic improvement after supplementation, and further research on timing and dosage of supplementation.
The level of evidence obtained is level I. This is because it entailed searching for systemic reviews that form the highest probable evidence levels. Also, a meta-analysis of random controlled clinic units’ trials was undertaken. In each key outcome, more than three trials were utilized. The amount of evidence used is huge and of good population sample that can be generalized. This is because the search was done on the Cochrane Registers of Controlled Trials and Cochrane Databases of Systematic Reviews and also, Medline databases were a total pool of 1431 abstracts formed the basis of selection of the articles. According to Burns, Rohrich & Chung (2011), this was then narrowed down to specific outcomes, population, interventions, language, and comparison, which were key aspects of the current study.
References
Burns , P. B., Rohrich, R. J., & Chung, K. C. (2011). The Levels of Evidence and their role in Evidence-Based Medicine. Plast Recons Surg . Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3124652/
U.S Preventive Services Task Force. (2015). Iron Deficiency Anemia in Pregnant Women: Screening and Supplementation . Retrieved from www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org: https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/document/evidence-summary22/iron-deficiency-anemia-in-pregnant-women-screening-and-supplementation#fig1
