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Table 1 Characteristics of 1,262 participants that reported experiencing any symptom during pregnancy versus no symptoms (2008–2010)

From: A prospective cohort study of the association between drinking water arsenic exposure and self-reported maternal health symptoms during pregnancy in Bangladesh

 

Reporting any symptom

 
 

No (n = 467)

Yes (n = 795)

p-value

Mean (SD), arsenic at enrollment (μg/L)

20.9 (70.8)

50.0 (104.1)

<0.0001

Median (IQR), arsenic at enrollment (μg/L)

1.6 (0.8, 5.2)

7.0 (1.1, 58.0)

<0.0001 a

Mean (SD) age at enrollment (yrs)

22.6 (4.0)

23.1 (4.3)

0.05

 

(n) %

(n) %

 

Drinking water arsenic quartiles

   

 Q4 (Mean: 144.7 μg/L, range: 32–1,400 μg/L)

(68) 14.56

(244) 30.69

<0.0001

 Q3 (Mean: 12.0 μg/L, range: 2.1–31 μg/L)

(77) 16.49

(226) 28.43

 

 Q2 (Mean: 1.5 μg/L; range: 0.9–2 μg/L

(185) 39.61

(142) 17.86

 

 Q1 (Mean: 0.7 μg/L; range: 0.5–0.89 μg/L)

(137) 29.34

(183) 23.02

 

BMI at time of enrollment (kg/m2)

   

 <18.5

(117) 25.05

(246) 30.94

0.05

 18.5–24.9

(299) 64.03

(481) 60.5

 

 ≥ 25.0

(51) 10.92

(68) 8.55

 

Environmental tobacco smoke

   

 Absent

(319) 68.6

(418) 52.64

<0.001

 Present

(146) 31.4

(376) 47.36

 

 Missing

2

1

 

Maternal education

   

 Illiterate/Able to write name

(47) 10.13

(144) 18.14

<0.0001

 Primary education

(199) 42.89

(216) 27.2

 

 ≥ Secondary education

(218) 46.98

(434) 54.66

 

 Missing

3

1

 

Parity

   

 0

(214) 45.82

(309) 38.87

0.01

 1-2

(213) 45.61

(385) 48.43

 

 ≥3

(40) 8.57

(101) 12.7

 

Anemia (hemoglobin ≤ 12 g/dL)

   

 No

(327) 70.32

(647) 81.49

<0.0001

 Yes

(138) 29.68

(147) 18.51

 

 Missing

2

1

 

Ferritin

   

 Severe deficiency (<20 μg/L)

(80) 18.06

(108) 14.3

0.0007

 Mild deficiency (20–40 μg/L)

(138) 31.15

(179) 23.71

 

 None (>40 μg/L)

(225) 50.79

(468) 61.99

 

 Missing

24

40

 

Sanitation at home

   

 Sanitary latrine

(372) 79.83

(469) 59.14

<0.0001

 Other

(94) 20.17

(324) 40.86

 

 Missing

1

2

 

Taking herbs/medication

   

 No

(459) 98.5

(719) 90.44

<0.0001

 Yes

(7) 1.5

(76) 9.56

 

 Missing

1

0

 

Income (taka/month)

   

 <3000

(45) 9.89

(176) 22.34

<0.0001

 3001–5000

(270) 59.34

(412) 52.28

 

 ≥ 5000

(137) 30.11

(175) 22.21

 

 Refused/don’t know

(3) 0.66

(25) 3.17

 

 Missing

12

7

 
  1. aWilcoxon test performed on natural log transformed values.