. 2015 Oct 21;7(10):8723–8732. doi: 10.3390/nu7105428

Table 2.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) concentrations by region and participant group.

	Inland		Lakeland		Coastland		P ANOVA
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	P ANOVA
wt. %
Plasma
Mid-pregnancy	2.25	0.46	2.45 ^a	0.44	3.19 ^a	0.65	<0.001
Late pregnancy	1.67 ^b	0.35	1.95 ^a,b	0.45	2.54 ^a,b	0.60	<0.001
Lactation	1.68 ^b	0.48	2.26 ^a,b	0.53	2.24 ^a,b	0.70	<0.001
P ANOVA	<0.001		<0.001		<0.001
Erythrocyte
Mid-pregnancy	5.85	1.06	6.34 ^a	0.80	7.59 ^a	1.46	<0.001
Late pregnancy	5.06 ^b	1.25	6.23 ^a	1.09	7.09 ^a,b	1.93	<0.001
Lactation	5.20 ^b	1.15	6.20 ^a	0.92	6.07 ^a,b	1.59	<0.001
P ANOVA	<0.001		0.45		<0.001
μg/mL
Plasma
Mid-pregnancy	93.4	25.2	86.2 ^a	20.5	118.4 ^a	30.8	<0.001
Late pregnancy	101.9 ^b	33.1	110.1 ^a,b	28.3	146.2 ^a,b	45.1	<0.001
Lactation	60.5 ^b	17.5	65.1 ^b	20.9	75.7 ^a,b	29.9	<0.001
P ANOVA	<0.001		<0.001		<0.001
Erythrocyte
Mid-pregnancy	108.0	22.1	103.2 ^a	13.6	127.7 ^a	27.2	<0.001
Late pregnancy	89.3 ^b	25.2	106.6 ^a	20.7	123.2 ^a	37.5	<0.001
Lactation	91.4 ^b	22.1	97.0 ^a,b	19.7	99.3 ^a,b	29.6	<0.05
P ANOVA	<0.001		<0.001		<0.001

ANOVA, analyses of variance. ^a: Mean values were significant different compared with women from inland within the same participant group (by t-test, p < 0.05); ^b: mean values were significant different compared with women in mid-pregnancy within the same region (by t-test).