Table 1.
Child, maternal and household characteristics of study participants assessed for biochemical status, by study group
| LNS-Zn0 | LNS-Zn5 | LNS-Zn10 | LNS-TabZn | NIC | p-value for the difference among 5 groupsa,b | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N (children with 9 and 18 mo values) | 84 | 75 | 79 | 73 | 93 | |
| N boys (%) | 38 (45.2) | 41 (54.7) | 31 (39.2) | 38 (52.0) | 40 (49.5) | 1.000 |
| Baseline child LAZ | −1.29 ± 1.00 | −1.25 ± 1.04 | −1.14 ± 1.08 | −1.11 ± 1.10 | −1.14 ± 1.08 | 0.783 |
| Baseline child WLZ | −1.03 ± 1.20 | −0.92 ± 1.04 | −1.13 ± 0.91 | −0.86 ± 1.05 | −1.05 ± 1.11 | 0.506 |
| N Baseline iron supplementation (%)c | 20 (23.8) | 21 (28.0) | 21 (26.6) | 23 (31.5) | 29 (31.2) | 0.828 |
| N Baseline RDT positive (%) | 62 (73.8) | 49 (65.3) | 54 (68.3) | 47 (64.4) | 58 (62.4) | 0.479 |
| Maternal body mass index (kg/m2) | 20.5 ± 1.7 | 20.8 ± 2.3 | 21.1 ± 2.6 | 21.0 ± 2.3 | 20.4 ± 2.3 | 0.164 |
| Maternal education | 0.383 | |||||
| No formal or informal education | 53 (63.1) | 47 (62.7) | 51 (64.6) | 43 (58.9) | 68 (73.1) | |
| Any informal education and/or less than one year of formal education | 24 (28.6) | 21 (28.0) | 19 (24.0) | 18 (24.7) | 17 (18.3) | |
| At least one year of formal education | 7 (8.3) | 7 (9.3) | 9 (11.14) | 12 (16.4) | 8 (8.6) | |
| Baseline child feeding practices | ||||||
| Child still breastfed (%) | 84 (100) | 75 (100) | 79 (100) | 73 (100) | 93 (100) | 1.000 |
| Animal source foodd | 21 (25.0) | 18 (24.0) | 15 (19.0) | 22 (30.1) | 22 (23.7) | 0.621 |
| Child morbidity during the interventione | ||||||
| Child malaria incidence (episodes per 100 child days at risk) | 0.60 ± 0.48 | 0.62 ± 0.53 | 0.58 ± 0.48 | 0.64 ± 0.54 | – | 0.339 |
| Child fever incidence (episodes/100 child-days at risk) | 1.28 ± 0.84 | 1.34 ± 0.94 | 1.51 ± .1.19 | 1.39 ± 0.95 | – | 0.683 |
| Child diarrhea incidence (episodes per 100 child days at risk) | 1.02 ± 0.90 | 0.82 ± 0.66 | 0.92 ± 0.80 | 0.92 ± 0.92 | – | 0.469 |
LAZ length for age z-score, WLZ weight for length z-score
aValues presented are means ± SD, n (%)
b P-values are from mixed model for continuous variables, logistic regression for binary variables and Chi square for polychotomous variables. All analyses were adjusted for the random effect of village, and in morbidity outcomes, were controlled for over-dispersion
cChildren with Hb <80 g/L received ferrous sulfate, 2–6 mg iron/kg body weight/d for 30 days, depending on the anemia severity and 200 mg mebendazole/d for three days to treat possible helminthic infections
dChild consumed at least one animal-source food during the previous 24 h
eMorbidity outcomes include children in the IC who provided data on ≥30 days