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Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the 591 children from Flores island, Indonesia

From: Effect of a short course of iron polymaltose on acquisition of malarial parasitaemia in anaemic Indonesian schoolchildren: a randomized trial

Variablea

IPM group

Placebo group

Number

294

297

Gender, male, n (%)

225 (77)

224 (75)

Age, years, mean ± SD

10.2 ± 2.8

10.5 ± 3.0

 Baseline age 5–11, n (%)

206 (70)

190 (64)

 Baseline age 12–15, n (%)

59 (20)

72 (24)

 Baseline age 16–18, n (%)

29 (10)

35 (12)

Weight, kg, mean ± SD

24.8 ± 8.1

26 ± 9.7

PCR Plasmodium, n (%)

16 (5.4)

18 (6.1)

 PCR P. falciparum, n (%)

3 (1.0)

11 (3.7)

 PCR P. vivax, n (%)

13 (4.4)

7 (2.4)

Haemoglobin concentration, g/dl, mean ± SD

12.0 ± 0.8

12.0 ± 0.9

Haematocrit, mean ± SD

37.4 ± 3.1

37.7 ± 2.5

Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), fl, mean ± SD

74.2 ± 5.5

73.7 ± 5.7

 MCV < 75 fl, n (%)

147 (52)

164 (57)

 MCV ≥ 75 fl, n (%)

147 (48)

132 (43)

Ferritin concentration, µg/l, median (IQR)

43.5 (28.3–64.8)

40.4 (26.6–64.2)

Number with ferritin < 30 µg/l, n (%)

77 (26)

82 (28)

 With MCV < 75 fl, n (%)

39 (13)

52 (18)

 With MCV ≥ 75 fl, n (%)

38 (13)

29 (10)

Number with ferritin < 12 µg/l, n (%)

18 (6)

33 (11)

 With MCV < 75 fl, n (%)

6 (2)

21 (7)

 With MCV > 75 fl, n (%)

12 (4)

11 (4)

Suspected thalassaemia, n (%)b

62 (21)

74 (25)

  1. aDifferences in distribution of baseline characteristics were analysed using the Chi square test or Student t test using log transformed data. There were no statistically significant differences between except in number of number with positive PCR Plasmodium falciparum (P = 0.03), number of children with ferritin level < 12 µg/l) (P = 0.03) and number of children with serum ferritin level < 12 µg/l and microcytosis (P = 0.03)
  2. bSuspected thalassemia was defined as Mentzer index (MI) < 13, the ratio of (MCV/RBC)
  3. IPM iron polymaltose, IQR interquartile range, PCR polymerase chain reaction