UnTied Universe

Confounding factors By mailed questionnaire, the following information on factors that may affect infant growth and maternal vitamin and oxidative stress levels was collected: first weaning month, breastfeeding, mother's employment status, secondhand smoke exposure, caregiver (mother or other individual), infant dietary supplementation, hospital admission history, parental

education period, and household income. Statistical analysis Levels of maternal vitamins and oxidative stress were Dovitinib manufacturer dichotomized into low/high groups at the 25th or 75th percentile as determined by the distribution of serum or urinary concentrations among the entire cohort. The rationale for using different percentiles is that for vitamin A as the 25th percentile, a deficiency effect was important; for vitamins C and E as the 75th percentile, a supplementing effect was important; and for 8-OHdG and MDA as the 75th percentile, an excess effect was important. Between the two low/high groups, the mean infant weight, height, head circumference, weight percentile, height percentile, and head circumference percentile at birth and at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months were assessed using the PROC Mixed procedure in the Statistical Analysis Systems statistical software package version 9.1 for Windows (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA). The Student's t test and chi-squared test were

conducted to select confounding factors. Finally, we selected the five potential confounding variables that provided valid and precise results. Results General characteristics of the study population A total GW4064 of 383 infants whose mothers�� vitamin and oxidative stress levels were measured were followed up at least once between birth and 36 months (follow-up rate of 64.5%). Table 1 lists the number of infants followed at birth

and at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months as well as their mean weight, height, and head circumference. Figure 1 shows that the weight, height, and head circumference from birth to 36 months ALOX15 were all higher in male than in female infants. All measurements were within the normal ranges based on comparison with the Korean National Growth Curves (Fig. 1) and WHO Child Growth Standards (9, 11). The levels of maternal antioxidant vitamins and oxidative stress and the general characteristics of the mothers, fathers, and infants, are shown in Table 2. Fig. 1 Comparison of data with Korean National Growth Curve. Table 1 Anthropometric parameters of infants at birth and at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 monthsa Table 2 General characteristics of the study populationa A total of 383 infants were followed up, and 124 infants dropped out during follow-up. The differences among these infants were in the maternal vitamin A level (p=0.01) and caregiver (mother or other individual) (p<0.0001) (Table 3).</p>