‘A large number of Pakistanis live here and it is always heartwarming to meet them and connect with them on occasions like Eid as you don’t get to meet a lot of people on a regular basis’
Anemia in pregnancy is defined as a hemoglobin level of less than 11g/dl, and is commonly due to iron deficiency. This systematic review was conducted to determine the prevalence and risk factors of anemia and iron deficiency among pregnant women in Malaysia. A systematic literature search was conducted in Google Scholar, PubMed and Cochrane Library databases. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guideline. Eight studies comprising a total number of 2638 pregnant women were included in this review. Only two studies focused on iron deficiency, whereas the other six investigated anemia in pregnancy without specifying iron deficiency or any other nutritional cause for the anemia, signifying the lack of published literature on this important public health nutritional issue in Malaysia. The overall prevalence of anemia in pregnancy ranged from 19.3% to 57.4%, while the prevalence of iron deficiency was 31.6% to 34.6%. Factors that were