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

Table 1

Selected baseline characteristics of the four treatment groups.

Characteristics	Treatment groups
	Weekly Fe + Zn (𝑛=88)	Weekly Fe (𝑛=97)	Daily Fe + Zn (𝑛=84)	Daily Fe (𝑛=100)	𝑃value
Age (years)	31.0 ± 9.4^1	31.4±9.0	30.2±8.9	31.6±10.1	0.75^4
Education (years)	5.5±3.8	6.0±4.3	6.2±3.8	5.7±3.5	0.66
Socioeconomic status
Low	29 (33.3)^2	35 (36.1)	34 (41.0)	32 (32.3)	0.38^5
Medium	31 (35.6)	24 (24.7)	25 (30.1)	38 (38.4)
High	27 (31.0)	38 (39.2)	24 (28.9)	29 (29.3)
Weight (kg)	55.2±9.6	54.9±8.9	55.4±10.7	53.5±10.0	0.58
Height (cm)	145.1±4.4	145.2±4.7	145.1±5.1	144.7±4.4	0.89
Body mass index (kg/m^2)	26.2±4.3	26.1±4.3	26.2±4.4	25.5±4.1	0.61
Compliance (%)	98.8±1.9	98.9±2.4	99.0±1.6	99.0±2.9	0.97
Dietary intake
Folate (μg)	384^3 (292–524)	370 (252–485)	340 (246–540)	364 (281–483)	0.49^6
Vitamin B-12 (μg)	2.0 (0.7–4.1)	1.7 (0.8–3.9)	2.1 (0.7–3.2)	1.4 (0.7–3.0)	0.51
Vitamin B-6 (mg)	1.1 (0.8–1.4)	1.1 (0.7–1.5)	1.0 (0.8–1.4)	1.1 (0.7–1.4)	0.75
Iron (mg)	15.0 (11.3–21.5)	13.9 (9.7–18.1)	13.5 (10.3–17.7)	13.8 (10.7–17.5)	0.27
Zinc (mg)	9.2 (7.1–12.3)	9.2 (6.9–12.0)	9.1 (7.1–11.4)	8.6 (7.4–11.7)	0.97
Energy (kJ)	6732 (5749–8916)	6732 (5448–8477)	6661 (5594–8602)	6945 (5494–8184)	0.89

¹Mean ± SD for age, education, height, weight, BMI, and compliance.
²𝑛 (%) for SES.
³Median (interquartile range) for dietary intake.
⁴ANOVA test for age, education, height, weight, BMI, and compliance.
⁵Chi-square test for categorical variables.
⁶Kruskal-Wallis test for dietary intake.