The pattern of serum zinc and its contributing factors among third trimester pregnant women in Urmia, Iran, 2018

The deficiency or excess of serum zinc in pregnancy may threaten the health of the mother and
the fetus. The purpose of this study is to determine the pattern of serum zinc in pregnant women covered by
Urmia urban health centers and its association with some nutritional and clinical determinants in the third
trimester, from July to December 2018.
Design/methodology/approach – In this analytic cross-sectional study, of six selected health centers in
Urmia, 400 pregnant women subjects who were in their third trimester were recruited in a simple random
manner. The nutritional, demographic, clinical data as well as fasting blood samples were taken from each of
AQ: 1 the subjects. The data were analyzed using chi-square, independent t-test and logistic regression tests.
Findings – The study revealed that about 3 per cent of pregnant women had zinc deficiency, 70.2 per cent
were normal and 26.8 per cent had high serum zinc levels. In 388 pregnant women (72.4 per cent with normal
serum zinc and 27.6 per cent with high serum zinc), binary logistic regression model showed that high
concentration of serum zinc was directly associated with dietary intake zinc (OR: 2.252; 95 per cent CI: 1.85-
2.74), supplement zinc (OR: 7.823; 95 per cent CI: 3.676-16.649) and total intake magnesium (OR: 1.005; 95 per
cent CI: 1.000-1.01) and inversely associated with frequent reproductive cycling (OR: 0.739; 95 per cent CI:
0.569-0.959