At the end of treatment (day 14 for the consecutive-day group and day 28 for the alternate-day group), geometric mean (–SD, +SD) fractional iron absorptions were 16.3% (9.3,28.8) in the consecutive-day group versus 21.8% (13.7, 34.6) in the alternate-day group (p=0.0013), and total iron absorption was131.0 mg (71.4,240.5) versus 175.3 mg (110.3,278.5; p=0.0010; table 2).