2.1 Statistical Analysis
Chi-square and Fischer’s exact test were utilized to compare categorical variables. The inter-group comparison was performed with the student’s t-test for parametric and Mann–Whitney test for nonparametric data. Spearman’s correlation was used to analyze the correlation between serum ferritin and LIC/MIC. Multiple linear regression was performed to predict the influence of independent parameters on serum ferritin and LIC. All tests were two-tailed, and a P-value <0.05 was considered significant. Analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, version 23.0 for Windows).