Disrupted coupling between ferritin and iron absorption in enteropathy-related anemia: Evidence for a dual-pathway model

Table 1 Characteristics of the study population, n (%)/mean ± SD

Parameter	Anemia		P value	Effect size
	Non-anemic group	Anemic group
Gender			0.683	N/A
Male	4 (17.4)	4 (13.3)
Female	19 (82.6)	26 (86.7)
Age	37.5 ± 15.8	39.3 ± 11.8	0.634	N/A
RBC	4.57 ± 0.47	4.46 ± 0.40	0.377	N/A
HB	13.03 ± 1.52	10.28 ± 1.15	< 0.001	2.01
MCV	87.06 ± 6.54	77.10 ± 6.44	< 0.001	1.54
MCH	28.67 ± 2.75	23.71 ± 2.93	< 0.001	1.74
Hematocrit	39.80 ± 3.91	33.99 ± 3.16	< 0.001	1.66
Iron	13.23 ± 6.80	5.21 ± 3.90	< 0.001	1.50
Ferritin	12.19 ± 8.90	5.51 ± 3.92	< 0.001	1.02
FACIT-F total	32.96 ± 9.48	29.30 ± 13.49	0.274	N/A
FACIT-F groups			0.078	N/A
1	2 (8.7)	7 (23.3)
2	5 (21.7)	10 (33.3)
3	10 (43.5)	4 (13.3)
4	6 (26.1)	9 (30.0)

Anemia was defined according to World Health Organization criteria: Male < 130 g/L, women < 120 g/L. Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy groups were categorized as follows: 1 = severe fatigue (0-20), 2 = moderate fatigue (21-30), 3 = mild fatigue (31-40), 4 = minimal or no fatigue (41-52), according to previously published Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue scoring guidelines. N/A: Not applicable; RBC: Red blood cells; HB: Hemoglobin; MCV: Mean corpuscular volume; MCH: Mean corpuscular hemoglobin; FACIT-F: Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Fatigue scale.