Abstract:
Introduction: Night blindness has been recognized as a public health problem in women of reproductive age. Globally, night blindness affects 9.8 million women which correspond to 7.8%of the population at risk of vitamin A deficiency. Even though the magnitude of previous night blindness among Ethiopian women was reported high ( 22.1%), factors related to night blindness are not well established particularly in the study area. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess prevalence of current night blindness &associated factors among pregnant & lactating women of Neader Adet area, North Ethiopia. Methods: Community based cross sectional quantitative study was conducted from March 26to April 22, 2012 among pregnant & lactating women of Neader Adet woreda, Tigray region. The study included 480,pregnant(287) & lactating(193) women. Multistage sampling stratified by women status (pregnant or lactating) was used to select study subjects. A structured and pretested questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were entered, cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 16 statistical package. Frequencies & summary statistics were used to describe the study population. Logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify associated factors of night blindness. P-value of≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: The prevalence of current night blindness was 18.6%among pregnant & lactating women. In multivariate model, women whose husband attended elementary school &above[AOR=0.333; 95%CI:(0.170,0.654)], no history of night blindness in last pregnancy [AOR=0.179 ; 95% CI: (0.094,0.339)], lack of land ownership[AOR=3.952; 95% CI: (2.103,7.424)],fetch water greater than 30 minute[AOR=3.93;95%CI: (1.625,9.510)] &had not or one & 3 or more live births were predictors of night blindness among pregnant & lactating women. Lactating women were at a lower risk of night blindness [AOR=0.487; 95% CI: (0.252,0.940)]compared to pregnant women. Conclusion & Recommendations: The prevalent night blindness underlines that vitamin A deficiency is a major problem among pregnant & lactating women in this population. Pregnant &lactating women with history of night blindness in last pregnancy, lack of land ownership, illiterate husband, fetch water greater than 30 minute &no or one &3 or more children born alive were at higher risk of night blindness. Increasing & strengthening coverage of vitamin A supplementation post partum, nutritional counseling & support &improvement of family planning utilization were recommended