The American journal of clinical nutrition
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Adherence to iron supplementation during pregnancy in Tanzania: determinants and hematologic consequences.
Limited adherence to iron supplementation is thought to be a major reason for the low effectiveness of anemia-prevention programs. In rural Tanzania, women at 21-26 wk of gestation were randomly given either 120 mg of a conventional (Con) iron supplement or 50 mg of a gastric-delivery-system (GDS) iron supplement for 12 wk. Adherence was assessed by using a pill bottle equipped with an electronic counting device. ⋯ Fewer side effects were observed in the GDS group. In a subgroup of women with a low initial hemoglobin concentration (< or = 120 g/L), the response to the iron supplements suggested that both of the applied doses were unnecessarily high for adequate hematologic response in a population with a marginal hemoglobin concentration. The GDS group appeared to require a dose one-fourth as high as that of the Con group for an equal effect on improving hemoglobin to normal concentrations.
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The inability to precisely estimate body composition with simple, inexpensive, and easily applied techniques is an impediment to clinical investigations in nutrition. In this study, predictive equations for body cell mass (BCM), fat-free mass (FFM), and total body water (TBW) were derived from direct measurements through use of single-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in 332 subjects, including white, black, and Hispanic men and women, who were both healthy control subjects and patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Preliminary studies showed more accurate predictions of BCM when parallel-transformed values of reactance were used rather than the values reported by the bioelectrical impedance analyzer. ⋯ The resulting equations were validated internally, and race and disease (HIV infection) were shown not to affect the predictions. The equation for FFM was validated externally against results derived from hydrodensitometry in 440 healthy individuals; the SEE was < 5%. These results indicate that body composition can be estimated with simple and easily applied techniques, and that the estimates are sufficiently precise for use in clinical investigation and practice.