Effect of Zinc on Efficacy of Iron Supplementation in Improving Iron and Zinc Status in Women

Table 3

Anemia, iron, and zinc deficiency in women before and after daily or weekly supplementation for 12 week.

Treatment groups	Baseline (Percent)	Endline (Percent)
Anemia (Hb <120 g/L)
Overall	48 (13.0)	53 (14.5)
Weekly Fe+ Zn	13 (14.8)	16 (18.4)
Weekly Fe	13 (13.4)	13 (13.7)
Daily Fe+ Zn	13 (15.5)	12 (14.5)
Daily Fe	9 (9.0)	12 (12.0)
Insufficient iron stores (serum ferritin <20 μg/L)
Overall	72 (19.7)^1	24 (6.6)^2
Weekly Fe+ Zn	20 (22.7)^1	9 (10.2)^2
Weekly Fe	21 (21.9)^1	8 (8.3)^2
Daily Fe+ Zn	16 (19.3)^1	4 (4.8)^2
Daily Fe	15 (15.2)^1	3 (3.0)^2
Depleted iron stores (serum ferritin <12 μg/L)
Overall	42 (11.5) ^1	10 (2.7)^2
Weekly Fe+ Zn	11 (12.5)^1	5 (5.7)^2
Weekly Fe	11 (11.5)^1	1 (1.0)^2
Daily Fe+ Zn	8 (9.6)^1	2 (2.4)^2
Daily Fe	12 (12.1)^1	2 (2.0)^2
Zinc deficiency (serum zinc <10.7 μmol/L)
Overall	198 (54.4)	207 (56.9)
Weekly Fe+ Zn	56 (63.6)	53 (60.2)
Weekly Fe	51 (53.7)	61 (64.2)
Daily Fe+ Zn	42 (50.6)	44 (53.0)
Daily Fe	49 (50.0)	49 (50.0)

^1,2Values in column with superscripts without a common number differ significantly, 𝑃<0.05.