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

Table 2

Comparisons between newborns of mothers with vitamin A deficiency and newborns of mothers without vitamin A deficiency regarding anthropometric measurements, hematological parameters, and cord serum retinol concentrations.

	Newborns of mothers with VAD; 𝑁=47	Newborns of mothers without VAD; 𝑁=153	𝑡 value	𝑃
Gestational age (week)	38.2±1.3	38.05±0.9	0.936	0.351
Weight (kg)	3.37±0.36	3.32±0.29	1.033	0.303
OFC (cm)	34.3±1.1	34.5±0.9	1.228	0.227
Length (cm)	46.7±0.82	46.5±0.85	1.06	0.289
WBCs (×10^3/mm^3)	8.5±1.4	8.6±1.3	0.154	0.852
Hb% (g/dL)	15.3±1.1	17.2±0.9	−11.6	<0.001
MCV (fL)	95.9±2.3	97.5±2.7	−3.42	0.001
MCH (pg)	32.6±1.3	33.2±1.1	−2.649	0.009
MCHC	33.8±1.1	34.6±0.7	−5.788	<0.001
Platelets (×10^3/mm^3)	275.7±53.6	259.6±86.4	1.9	0.08
Cord retinol concentration (µmol/L)	0.43±0.1	1.2±0.4	−13.313	0.001

VAD: vitamin A deficiency; OFC: occipitofrontal circumference; WBCs: white blood cells; Hb%: hemoglobin concentration; MCV: mean corpuscular volume; MCH: mean corpuscular hemoglobin; MCHC: mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration.
Data are presented as mean ± SD. Unpaired 𝑡-test was used for comparisons. 𝑃 value < 0.05 indicates a significant difference.