Non-adherence to iron and folic acid consumption among Indian pregnant women: evidences from national family health survey-5 data (2019-21)

Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation is one of the highly recommended strategies to tackle anemia. Under the backdrop of high anemia prevalence among pregnant women, this study examines the level of non-adherence with IFA supplementation, separately for 100 + days and 180 + days, among pregnant women in India. While the probability of initiation of IFA tablets is fairly high among pregnant women in India, the probability of consuming at least 100 tablets declines drastically for pregnant women irrespective of their socio-economic profile. The chances of not taking IFA for at least 100 days and 180 days are lesser by 21% and 15% respectively for urban with respect to rural women. Minimum four antenatal care (ANC) visits and husband’s presence during any of these visits demonstrated significant associations. Risk of non-compliance is lesser among women with lower birth order as compared to pregnancies of third and higher birth order.