MATERNAL IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA AND NEONATAL ANTHROPOMETRIC AND HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS: A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the association between maternal iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and anthropometric and hematological parameters of term neonates. Methods: This prospective observational comparative study included 200 mothers in the third-trimester and their term neonates at GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Visakhapatnam, from November 2022 to April 2024. Maternal IDA was operationally defined as hemoglobin (Hb) <11.0 g/dL with serum ferritin <15 ng/mL; 100 mother-neonate pairs were included in each group. Group differences were summarized as mean differences with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), p-values, and Cohen’s d effect sizes. Because key maternal confounders were not captured in the analytic dataset, adjusted multivariable analysis was not feasible. Results: Maternal age was comparable between groups. Neonates of mothers with IDA had lower birth weight (2.44±0.15 vs. 2.88±0.22 kg; mean difference 0.44 kg, 95% CI 0.39–0.49; d=2.34), length (45.84±1.13 vs. 48.14±1.15 cm), head circumference (33.20±0.68 vs. 34.60±0.27 cm), cord Hb (13.87±1.07 vs. 15.40±0.59 g/dL), and Day-3 Hb (15.01±0.97 vs. 16.70±0.53 g/dL); all p<0.001. The birth-weight difference represented approximately 15.3% of the non-anemic group mean. Conclusion: Maternal IDA was associated with substantially lower neonatal anthropometric measurements and early Hb indices. The findings are clinically relevant but should be interpreted as unadjusted associations because convenience sampling, residual confounding, the stringent ferritin threshold, and absence of neonatal ferritin limit causal inference.