Sex differences in the impact of the Mediterranean diet on systemic inflammation

Nutrition Journal

Table 3 Characteristics of men and women at baseline^a

	Men (n = 35)		Women (n = 27)		Sex difference^b
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	P-value
Age (years)	43.0	7.2	41.4	7.3	0.3928
Body weight (kg)^c	92.1	14.1	74.9	9.7	<0.0001
BMI (kg/m²)^c	29.2	3.2	28.4	3.2	0.2881
Waist circumference (cm)^c	102.7	11.0	94.7	8.1	0.0018
TAG (mmol/l)^c	1.86	1.19	1.34	0.65	0.0273
LDL-cholesterol (mmol/l)	3.65	0.72	3.56	0.51	0.5896
HDL-cholesterol (mmol/l)^c	1.12	0.30	1.33	0.25	0.0020
Total cholesterol/HDL-C	5.24	1.03	4.25	0.77	<0.0001
Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg)	117.3	12.9	107.2	10.2	0.0015
Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg)	80.4	9.2	72.1	8.0	0.0005
Fasting glucose (mmol/l)	5.87	0.37	5.54	0.44	0.0019
Mediterranean score (arbitrary units)^d	25.1	6.0	24.5	4.8	0.6541

SD standard deviation, BMI body mass index, TAG triacylglycerol, LDL low-density lipoprotein, HDL high-density lipoprotein
^aThese characteristics were measured after the run-in period, i.e. immediately before the controlled MedDiet phase
^bSex differences were determined using the Student’s t-test for unpaired data, except for age for which Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney test was used
^cAnalysis was performed on transformed values
^dFrom 0 to 44 points, a score of 44 implies a food pattern which is perfectly concordant with the traditional MedDiet

ISSN: 1475-2891