Results
The total number of pregnant women under 20 weeks of gestation was 355. While 192 women were in the LID group (54%),163 women were a part of the normal group (46%).
Majority (56%) were between 21–30 years. Primi gravida pregnancies were noted among 43.2% in LID group, while it varied in the normal group. Majority were with a period of gestation of 13 to 20 weeks (56.2% in the LID group, 46.6% in the normal group). Gap of less than 2 years between pregnancies was 60.4% in LID and 44.2% in normal group. Most of the subjects (72%) were well educated to GCE Ordinary level or above, yet 89.6% of them were unemployed. Approximately, 68% of spouses were skilled workers. Nearly half of the sample belonged to low-income families with monthly earnings <LKR 50,000 (USD 278). Of the demographic data, statistical significance (P=0.006) was noted only for the gap between pregnancies being <2 years, but not for participants’ age, parity, period of gestation, income, or education.
The values for Hb, RBC, Red cell indices, and RDW, according to the iron status, are shown in Table 1, along with descriptive statistics. Considering the FBC parameters, the RDW values for participants in the LID vs. normal group were significant (P=0.001). No significant differences for Hb, RBC, MCV, mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) values were found between the groups.
Blood film morphology depicted a statistically significant presence of hypochromic microcytic red cells (P=0.001) and pencil cells (P=0.007) between groups. Morphology findings according to iron status are shown in Table 2.
Among the LID group, 25% participants had ferritin levels in the iron deficiency range (<15 µg/l). Although 43% of participants in the cohort were on iron supplements, there was no statistical difference for haematinics between the two groups. The ROC was constructed for red cell indices to identify predictive values. Significant area under the curve (AUC) and P values (P=0.0001) were noted only for RDW.