When stratifying by anemia, the correlation between retinol and biomarkers was stronger for anemics (rho = −0.39, p < 0.001 for IL6; rho = −0.30, p < 0.001 for CRP; and rho = 0.06 p = 0.28 for AGP) than non anemics (rho = −0.28, p<0.001 for IL6; rho = −0.22, p < 0.001 for CRP; and rho = 0.05, p = 0.20 for AGP). Here, IL6 is linked to anemia (phenotype).