Table 3.

Summary of correlations between maternal haematological indices and neonatal iron and haematological indices.

Mother	Neonate	Number of Studies and References	Pooled weighted mean correlation coefficient (95% CI)(Schmidt-Hunter)
Hb (n = 32)	Ferritin	6[23,32,38,58,62,76]	0.16 (−0.12, 0.43) – Negligible P = 0.27
	Hepcidin	1[76]	Not calculated
	Plasma/serum iron	5 [25,54,58,64,76]	0.29 (0.04, 0.54) – Negligible P = 0.02
	sTfR	2[56,35]	Not calculated
	Tf Sat	3[27,64,76]	0.35 (−0.05, 0.75) – Low positive P = 0.09
	TIBC	4[25,58,64,76]	−0.22 (−0.52, 0.08) – Negligible P = 0.16
	ZPP	1[64]	Not calculated
	Hb	32[21,[26], [27], [28], [29],32,33,35,36,38,42,43,47,49,54,57,59,[63], [64], [65]-67,70,[72], [73], [74],76,78,81,83,85,88]	0.15 (0.10, 0.20) – Negligible P<0.0001
	Ht	3[25,28,85]	0.13 (0.007, 0.25) – Negligible P = 0.04
	MCHb	2[27,38]	Not calculated
	MCV	3[27,38,64]	0.20 (−0.07, 0.46) – Negligible P = 0.14
Ht (n = 13)	Ferritin	2[32,58]	Not calculated
	Plasma/serum iron	1[58]	Not calculated
	sTfR	1[24]	Not calculated
	TIBC	1[58]	Not calculated
	Hb	3[28,32,85]	0.14 (0.04, 0.25) – Negligible P = 0.01
	Ht	10[28,29,34,47,65,67,70,72,73,85]	0.15 (0.06, 0.23) – Negligible P = 0.001
MCV (n = 7)	Ferritin	1[58]	Not calculated
	Plasma/serum iron	1 [58]	Not calculated
	TIBC	1 [58]	Not calculated
	MCV	6[33,42,47,63,65,70]	0.22 (0.10, 0.33) – Negligible P = 0.0002
MCHb (n = 6)	Ferritin	1[58]	Not calculated
	Plasma/serum iron	1[58]	Not calculated
	TIBC	1[58]	Not calculated
	MCHb	5[33,42,47,65,70]	0.25 (0.08, 0.43) – Negligible P = 0.004

Hb=haemoglobin; Ht=haematocrit; MCHb=mean corpuscular haemoglobin; MCV=mean cell volume; NOS=Newcastle-Ottawa scale; sTfR=soluble/serum transferrin receptor; TIBC=total iron binding capacity; Tf=transferrin; Tf Sat=transferrin saturation; ZPP= zinc protoporphyri.