Stool fatty acid soaps, stool consistency and gastrointestinal tolerance in term infants fed infant formulas containing high sn-2 palmitate with or without oligofructose: a double-blind, randomized clinical trial

Table 2 Baseline demographic characteristics of the study population

	Feeding group
	Control	sn-2	sn-2+OF	HM
	(n =46)	(n =51)	(n =49)	(n =49)
Infant characteristics
Age at enrollment, days^1,2	34.5 (3.1)	35.2 (4.2)	35.2 (3.4)	34.8 (3.9)
Gestational age, weeks^1,2	38.8 (1.2)	38.9 (1.2)	38.8 (1.1)	39.1 (1.0)
Gender, % male^3,4	52	53	59	59
Birth order, % first born^3,4	46	51	41	47
Parental characteristics
Maternal age, years^1,2	30.7 (5.9)	31.4 (5.5)	31.6 (5.7)	30.5 (4.5)
Marital status, % married^3,4	96	86	96	100
Mother’s number of school years completed^1,2	13.7 (2.1)	14.1 (2.7)	13.8 (1.9)	14.6 (2.9)
Father’s number of school years completed^1,2	13.8 (3.2)	14.1 (2.6)	13.3 (2.7)	15.1 (2.8)

¹Mean (SD).
²No significant differences were observed based on overall and pairwise comparisons across the formula groups and independent 2 sample t-tests comparing the FF groups to the HM group for infant age, gestational age, maternal age and years of school completed by the mother and father.
³Percentages are based on the number of subjects in each feeding group.
⁴No significant differences were observed based on overall and pairwise comparisons across the formula groups and HM based on overall and pairwise comparisons using Fisher’s exact test for infant gender, infant birth order, and mother’s marital status.
Control = bovine milk-based, whey-predominant, alpha-lactalbumin-enriched term infant formula with 100% vegetable fat blend; HM = human milk; sn-2 = high sn-2 palmitate formula (Control formula modified to contain 60% vegetable fat blend and 40% high sn-2 palmitate fat blend); sn-2+OF = high sn-2 palmitate formula supplemented with oligofructose at 3.0 g/L.

ISSN: 1475-2891