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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Apr 22.
Published in final edited form as: Eur J Clin Nutr. 2019 Jul 11;74(1):112–125. doi: 10.1038/s41430-019-0464-3

Table 5.

Associations between maternal iron deficiency at enrolment and pregnancy and infant outcomes

Model 1b Model 2c


Variablesa n β (SE) or RR (95%CI) P-value n β (SE) or RR (95%CI) P-value
Pregnancy outcomes
 Birth weight, g 244 −54.3 (58.6) 0.35 242 −45.4 (57.9) 0.43
  Low birth weight (<2500 g), n (%) 244 1.38 (0.76, 2.51) 0.30 242 1.36 (0.75, 2.46) 0.31
 Gestational age at birth, weeks 250 −0.29 (0.26) 0.28 248 −0.35 (0.26) 0.18
  Preterm (<37 weeks), n (%) 250 1.61 (0.84, 3.09) 0.15 248 1.75 (0.91, 3.37) 0.09
 Preterm and low birth weight, n (%) 244 1.19 (0.44, 3.16) 0.73 242 1.26 (0.47, 3.35) 0.64
 Small for gestational aged, n (%) 243 0.96 (0.67, 1.38) 0.84 241 0.97 (0.68, 1.38) 0.85
Infant outcomes
 Haemoglobin, g/dl 68 −0.41 (0.44) 0.36 68 −0.64 (0.44) 0.15
  Anaemia (<11.0 g/dl), n (%) 68 1.17 (0.70, 1.95) 0.54 68 1.20 (0.72, 1.98) 0.48
 Length, cm 219 −0.77 (0.39) 0.048 217 −0.71 (0.39) 0.07
 Length-for-age z-score (LAZ) 217 −0.29 (0.19) 0.12 215 −0.25 (0.19) 0.18
  LAZ < −2 217 1.45 (0.94, 2.23) 0.09 215 1.41 (0.92, 2.18) 0.11
 Weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) 243 −0.12 (0.14) 0.38 241 −0.10 (0.13) 0.46
  WAZ < −2 243 1.49 (0.74, 2.98) 0.26 241 1.46 (0.74, 2.88) 0.27
 Weight-for-length z-score (WLZ) 179 0.07 (0.26) 0.79 177 0.10 (0.26) 0.69
  WLZ < −2 179 1.30 (0.66, 2.53) 0.45 177 1.19 (0.62, 2.31) 0.60
 BMI z-score (BMIZ) 216 0.21 (0.21) 0.33 214 0.25 (0.21) 0.24
  BMIZ < −2 216 0.99 (0.54, 1.83) 0.98 214 0.90 (0.50, 1.65) 0.74
 Ponderal Index, g/cm3 218 0.001 (0.0007) 0.11 216 0.001 (0.0007) 0.09
 Head circumference, cm 219 −0.03 (0.23) 0.89 217 0.01 (0.23) 0.97
 Chest circumference, cm 219 0.18 (0.28) 0.52 217 0.23 (0.28) 0.41
 Waist circumference, cm 219 0.13 (0.39) 0.73 217 0.10 (0.39) 0.79
 Hip circumference, cm 219 0.33 (0.53) 0.54 217 0.41 (0.54) 0.45
 Mid-upper arm circumference, cm 217 −0.29 (0.42) 0.50 215 −0.32 (0.42) 0.45
 Biceps skinfold, mm 218 0.12 (0.14) 0.39 216 0.13 (0.14) 0.34
 Triceps skinfold, mm 218 0.56 (0.20) 0.01 216 0.59 (0.20) 0.004
a

Serum ferritin < 15.0 μg/l at enrolment (≤14 weeks gestation); beta (SE) is reported for continuous pregnancy outcomes; RR (95%CI) is reported for binary pregnancy outcomes

b

Models adjusted for gestational age of sample and vitamin B12 intervention

c

Models adjusted for gestational age of sample, vitamin B12 intervention, maternal BMI, standard of living index (SLI) >28, educational level, and ln(CRP)

d

Small for gestational age (SGA) was defined as birth weight <10th percentile of the gestational age, using INTERGROWTH reference [17]