=+4.60 ● The risk of developing iron deficiency is especially high during pregnancy. Detecting such a deficiency is complicated by the fact that some methods for determining iron status can be affected by the state of pregnancy itself. Consider the following data on transferrin receptor concentration for a sample of women with laboratory evidence of overt iron-deficiency anemia (“Serum Transferrin Receptor for the Detection of Iron Deficiency in Pregnancy,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition [1991]:

1077–1081):

15.2 9.3 7.6 11.9 10.4 9.7 20.4 9.4 11.5 16.2 9.4 8.3