Table 1 Baseline alpha- and beta-diversity (pairwise distance) metrics of the 380 children grouped according to age, sex, nutritional micronutrient and inflammatory status and parasitic infection

From: Faecal microbiota of schoolchildren is associated with nutritional status and markers of inflammation: a double-blinded cluster-randomized controlled trial using multi-micronutrient fortified rice

Alpha diversity

 

Variable

 

Kruskal-Wallis H

q-value

Shannon index

Age

6–9 years (n = 211, 4.6 ± 1.24) <  10–14 years (n = 169, 4.95 ± 1.12)

6.333

0.0119

Vitamin A deficiency

yes (n = 30, 4.35 ± 1.13) < no (n = 350, 4.81 ± 1.2)

4.938

0.0263

Pielou’s evenness

Age

6–9 years (n = 211, 0.66 ± 0.15) <  10–14 years (n = 169, 0.69 ± 0.13)

6.839

0.0089

Anaemia

yes (n = 76, 0.64 ± 0.17) < no (n = 304, 0.68 ± 0.13)

4.726

0.0297

Iron deficiency anaemia

yes (n = 47, 0.63 ± 0.17) < no (n = 333, 0.68 ± 0.14)

4.281

0.0385

Vitamin A deficiency

yes (n = 30, 0.61 ± 0.14) < no (n = 350, 0.68 ± 0.14)

5.646

0.0175

Beta diversity

 

Variable

 

Pseudo-F

q-value

Bray Curtis

Age

6–9 years (n = 211) vs. 10–14 years (n = 169)

2.319

0.0020

Iron deficiency

yes (n = 193) vs. no (n = 187)

1.409

0.0410

Vitamin A deficiency

yes (n = 30) vs. no (n = 350)

1.525

0.0230

Weighted UniFrac

Vitamin A deficiency

yes (n = 30) vs. no (n = 350)

2.540

0.0330

Unweighted UniFrac

Age

6–9 years (n = 211) vs. 10–14 years (n = 169)

1.490

0.0440

Jaccard

Age

6–9 years (n = 211) vs. 10–14 years (n = 169)

1.291

0.0070

Sex

boy (n = 200) vs. girl (n = 180)

1.888

0.0350

Iron deficiency

yes (n = 193) vs. no (n = 187)

1.215

0.0230

  1. Differences in alpha-diversity were estimated using a two-way Kruskal Wallis test. The direction of the change is indicated by “<”. Differences in beta-diversity were estimated using a two-way PERMANOVA analysis with 999 permutations. The number of samples in each subcategory is indicted in brackets. For all alpha diversity measures, the median ± standard deviation is presented alongside the number of participants (n, median± standard deviation). Only variables with statistically significant differences are listed in the table.
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