Table 3.

Distribution of anemia by red blood cell morphology stratified according to adequacy of micronutrient intakes.

RBC Index	Reference Rangea	Interpretation of RBC Morphology	Overall $\overline{\mathrm{x}}$ ± SD	Overall %	Micronutrient Dense	Micronutrient Poor	p-Value
Hb (g/dL) b	<7.0	Severe	10.80 ± 1.20	0.2	0	0.6	<0.0001
	7.0–9.9	Moderate c		23.1	6.2	47.1
	10.0–10.9	Mild		31.1	32.5	29.1
	≥11.0	Non-anemic c		45.5	61.3	23.3
Hct (%)	<30	Low c	33.72 ± 18.20	22.3	15.7	39.3	<0.0001
	30–39	Normal c		74.7	80.6	59.5
	>39	High		3.0	3.7	1.2
RBC count (×1012/L)	<2.81	Low	6.75 ± 29.88	0.3	0.5	0	0.788
	2.81–4.49	Normal		81.1	80.6	82.4
	>4.49	Polycythemia		18.6	19.0	17.6
MCV (fl)	<85.8	Microcytic c	83.45 ± 46.46	79.4	73.6	94.1	0.007
	85.8–99.4	Normal c		18.9	24.1	5.9
	>99.4	Macrocytic		1.7	2.3	0
MCH (pg/cell)	<33	Low	27.76 ± 15.34	88.4	86.6	92.9	0.089
	30–33	Normal		11.6	13.4	7.1
MCHC (g/dL)	<32.4	Hypochromic c	33.90 ± 13.26	29.3	24.9	35.8	0.021
	32.4–35.2	Normal c		47.7	54.2	38.2
	>35.2	Hyperchromic		23.0	20.9	26.0
RDW (%)	<12.3	Low	41.75 ± 19.71	0	0	0	0.365
	12.3–14.7	Normal		2.3	2.8	1.2
	>14.7	High		97.7	97.2	98.8

^a Morphologic types determined using references suggested by Abbassi-Ghanavati [22]. ^b Anemia determined using WHO classification [21]. ^c Adjusted Bonferroni statistics shows column proportions differ significantly at <0.05. $\overline{\mathrm{x}}$, mean; SD, standard deviation; Hb, hemoglobin; Hct, hematocrit; RBC, red blood cell; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; MCH, mean corpuscular hemoglobin; MCHC, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; RDW, red cell distribution width.