The effect of changing living standards on iron status in pregnancy in Calabar urban.

Reduced meat intake is often associated with iron deficiency anaemia. Reduced meat intake that arose from the frugality associated with a prolonged period of national economic reorientation policy, known as the "structural adjustment programme" (SAP), may have placed iron-stress on pregnancy in particular. Iron status of pre-SAP and SAP pregnancies were established from measurement of the haematological values of subjects. Indices such as haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume, serum Fe were lower in pregnancy especially during SAP. However, SAP pregnancy serum ferritin did not respond significantly to iron depletion. Unlike PCV, Total Iron Binding Capacity (TIBC) and serum transferrin values showed a reverse behaviour. The level of these values, however, portends a toll exerted on body iron status in pregnancy associated with reduced haem iron intake. The changes in these values did not, however, lead to any over symptoms of iron deficiency probably because increased sea food (molluscs) consumption ameliorates the iron-toll from low absorbed non-haem iron. For lower income rural women in non-coastal areas, the absence of seafood in their diets exacerbates the low iron status in Pregnancy.