Statistical analysis
IRON DEFICIENCY
The total study population was analyzed based on the intention-to-treat concept. The sample size for blood parameters in the PCG at week 2 and 4 were The following analyses were performed according to the pre-specified analysis plan. Serum iron, hemoglobin, UIBC, TIBC, and ferritin levels are expressed as the mean ± SD. Ferritin levels were log-transformed to obtain a normal distribution. The Tukey–Kramer test was applied to confirm that age, BMI, and blood parameters related to iron deficiency did not differ across the groups at baseline. Furthermore, to estimate the effects of the intervention on blood parameters, generalized linear mixed-effects models (GLMM) for repeated measures were calculated as follows:The outcome variable (To analyze changes in hemoglobin levels, we subtracted the initial hemoglobin level (at week 0) from the values at week 2, 4, and 6. Differences in changes in hemoglobin level across the three groups were compared using the Tukey–Kramer test. Dietary nutrient intake is expressed as the median ± interquartile range. The Mann–Whitney Pearson’s correlation coefficients and All statistical analyses were performed using R version 4.0.2 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria), and statistical significance was set at 