Maternal Vitamin A Deficiency during Pregnancy and Its Relation with Maternal and Neonatal Hemoglobin Concentrations among Poor Egyptian Families

Table 1

Comparisons between mothers with vitamin A deficiency and mothers without vitamin A deficiency regarding age, parity, vitamin A status, and hemoglobin concentration.

	Mothers with VAD; 𝑁=47	Mothers without VAD; 𝑁=153	𝑡 value	𝑃
Maternal age (years)	26.0±5.3	26.8±3.4	1.072	0.29
Parity	1.9±0.9	1.6±1.1	0.926	0.36
^1Retinol intake (µg/day)	346.5±81.9	673.9±274.4	3.412	0.002
Serum retinol (µmol/L)	0.5±0.1	1.9±0.6	−14.816	0.001
Hb% (g/dL)	9.5±1.3	11.1±0.9	−9.557	0.001

VAD: vitamin A deficiency; Hb%: hemoglobin concentration.
Data are presented as mean ± SD. Unpaired 𝑡-test was used for comparisons. 𝑃 value < 0.05 indicates a significant difference.
1Retinol intake was measured by analysis of 24 hours dietary recall using “Diet Analysis Program, 1995” (Lifestyles Technologies, Inc., Northbridge Point, Valencia, CA).