Table 1.

Baseline demographics and clinical characteristics

Category	IV iron (n = 100)	Oral iron (n = 101)
Age (years)
Mean ± SD	31 ± 5	31 ± 5
Range	21–44	19–42
Race, n (%)
White	88 (88%)	85 (84%)
Asian	10 (10%)	14 (14%)
Black or African American	1 (1%)	1 (1%)
Multiple	1 (1%)	1 (1%)
Smoking,a n (%)	13 (13%)	20 (20%)
Dietary preference, n (%)
Vegetarian	7 (7%)	2 (2%)
Vegan		1 (1%)
Neither vegetarian nor vegan	93 (93%)	98 (97%)
Pre-pregnancy BMI (kg/m2), n (%)	[n = 99]	[n = 100]
< 18.5	1 (1%)	0 (0%)
18.5–24.9	45 (45%)	47 (47%)
25.0–29.9	35 (35%)	33 (33%)
≥ 30.0	18 (18%)	20 (20%)
Gestational age (days)
Mean ± SD	132 ± 9	133 ± 10
Range	114–147	109–149
Parity, n (%)
0	40 (40%)	36 (36%)
1	34 (34%)	45 (45%)
2	20 (20%)	18 (18%)
3	6 (6%)	2 (2%)
Time from last delivery (months)
Mean ± SD	37 ± 24	44 ± 35
Range	6–110	6–156
Stratum, n (%)
Anaemic (Hb < 11 g/dL)	11 (11%)	12 (12%)
Non-anaemic (Hb ≥ 11 g/dL)	89 (89%)	89 (88%)
Haematology, mean ± SD
Hb (g/dL)	12.0 ± 0.9	11.8 ± 0.9
Ferritin (ng/mL)	21 ± 8 [n = 95]	20 ± 7
TSAT (%)	21 ± 10 [n = 94]	21 ± 11
PROs, mean ± SD
FACIT-fatigue score	32.8 ± 9.7	32.0 ± 10.9
SF-12: MCS score	47.7 ± 8.1	47.4 ± 8.2 [n = 99]
SF-12: PCS score	47.2 ± 8.6	47.0 ± 9.0 [n = 99]

No variables were significantly different between treatment groups using Fisher’s Exact Test for comparison of categorical variables and two-sample t-test for comparison of continuous variables (p > 0.05)

BMI body mass index, FACIT functional assessment of chronic illness therapy, Hb haemoglobin, IV intravenous, MCS mental component summary; PCS physical component summary, PRO patient-reported outcome, SD standard deviation, SF-12 12-item short-form health survey, TSAT transferrin saturation

^aWithin the last 6 months