Table 2.
Baseline characteristics of the women by intervention group (all 222 women enrolled) (Mean values and standard deviations; medians and interquartile ranges (IQR); number of participants and percentages)
| Control (n 114) | Treatment (n 108) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median | IQR | Median | IQR | P * | |
| Age (years) | 20 | 17–25 | 21 | 17–27 | 0·999 |
| Weight (kg) | 41·6 | 35·7–46·8 | 40·0 | 36·7–46·8 | 0·477 |
| Height (cm) | 0·750 | ||||
| Mean | 149·6 | 149·5 | |||
| sd | 5·7 | 5·6 | |||
| BMI (kg/m2) | 18·6 | 16·3–20·1 | 18·4 | 16·4–20·5 | 0·626 |
| n | % | n | % | ||
| Religion | 0·593 | ||||
| Hindu | 20 | 17·5 | 14 | 13·0 | |
| Muslim | 90 | 78·9 | 91 | 84·3 | |
| Other | 4 | 3·5 | 3 | 2·8 | |
| Education | 0·181 | ||||
| Primary or less | 27 | 23·7 | 19 | 17·6 | |
| Secondary | 80 | 70·2 | 78 | 72·2 | |
| Graduate | 7 | 6·2 | 5 | 4·6 | |
| Occupation | 0·587 | ||||
| Semi-skilled/unskilled | 27 | 23·7 | 25 | 23·1 | |
| Skilled/self-employed | 13 | 11·4 | 6 | 5·6 | |
| Professional | 4 | 3·5 | 2 | 1·9 | |
| Not working | 70 | 61·4 | 75 | 69·4 | |
| Deficiency status | |||||
| Ferritin ( < 15 ng/ml)† | 100 | 87·7 | 85 | 78·7 | 0·258 |
| Ferritin ( < 15 ng/ml)‡ | 61 | 88·4 | 55 | 84·6 | 0·520 |
| Retinol ( < 1·05 μmol/l) | 20 | 18·5 | 24 | 22·2 | 0·360 |
| Retinol ( < 1·05 μmol/l)‡ | 17 | 19·1 | 16 | 19·0 | 0·972 |
| Ascorbate ( < 11 μmol/l) | 46 | 40·4 | 38 | 35·1 | 0·385 |
| Folate ( < 6·8 nmol/l) | 9 | 7·9 | 9 | 8·3 | 0·805 |
| Vitamin B12 ( < 150 pmol/l) | 3 | 2·6 | 2 | 1·9 | 0·250 |
| Hb ( < 120 g/l) | 69 | 60·5 | 71 | 65·7 | 0·844 |
| Hb ( < 80 g/l) | 3 | 2·6 | 1 | 0·9 | 0·346 |
*
P value relates to differences between the groups based on t tests for continuous variables (values were log-transformed when distributions were not normal) and χ2 tests for categorical variables.
†
Includes all women.
‡
Excludes women with C-reactive protein concentrations >5000 ng/ml.