Table 3.

Haematological, parasitological and biochemical status of the study population.

Variables	Moderately undernourished		Severely undernourished		ρ
	n	%	n	%
Parasitism
Positive	51	86.5	18	90.0	0.498a
Negative	8	13.5	2	10.0
Anaemiab
Yes	20	33.9	15	75.0	0.001a
No	39	66.1	5	25.0
Hypovitaminosis Ac
Yes	0	0	0	0
No	59	100	20	20

Variables	Moderately undernourished	Severely undernourished	ρ
	Mean value ± standard deviation	Mean value ± standard deviation
Hormonesd
Cortisol (nmol/L)	7.74 ± 5.92	9.32 ± 8.68	0.400e
IGF-1 (ng/mL)	83.8 ± 38.97	60.73 ± 22.19	0.018f
Lipid profileg
Cholesterol (mg/dL)	164.36 ± 32.75	153.05 ± 32.17	0.184e
HDL (mg/dL)	36.23 ± 7.59	31.5 ± 7.01	0.015e
Triglycerides (mg/dL)	109.10 ± 46.46	108.0 ± 29.53	0.921e
LDL (mg/dL)	106.28 ± 31.21	99.92 ± 32.42	0.438e

^aEvaluated using the χ² test.

^bReference value for haemoglobin > 11 g/dL

^cReference value for vitamin A > 20 μg/dL

^dReference values: cortisol = 4–28 nmol/L; IGF-1 = 49–327 ng/mL

^eDetermined from ANOVA

^fEvaluated using the Kruskal Wallis test

^gReference values: cholesterol < 150 mg/dL; HDL ≥ 45 mg/dL; triglycerides and LDL < 100 mg/dL