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Table 1 Baseline characteristics of postmenopausal women from the NHSI and NHSII

From: Plasma sex hormones and risk of conventional and serrated precursors of colorectal cancer in postmenopausal women

Variablea

Non-polyp

Conventional adenoma

Serrated polyp

No. of participants

4576

535

402

Age at blood draw, years

58.9 (6.1)

59.4 (5.8)

57.5 (6.1)

White, %

99

99

99

Height, cm

164.0 (6.1)

164.6 (5.9)

164.4 (5.0)

Body mass indexb, kg/m2

25.3 (4.5)

25.9 (4.0)

26.1 (4.1)

Family history of colorectal cancer, %

27

34

29

Pack-year of smoking

11.7 (18.0)

15.1 (18.8)

17.8 (18.5)

 Never, %

46

44

34

 Past, %

44

43

47

 Current, %

10

14

20

Alcohol intakeb, g/day

6.1 (9.6)

6.3 (8.5)

6.4 (8.8)

Physical activityb, c, MET-hours/week

19.1 (19.7)

18.7 (19.3)

17.7 (16.5)

AHEI dietary scoreb

54.7 (10.2)

53.4 (9.1)

53.3 (8.9)

Regular aspirin used, %

52

53

49

Biomarkere

 Estrone (pg/ml)

24.40 (17.10–35.19)

25.23 (19.11–37.22)

25.31 (18.47–38.71)

 Total estradiol (pg/ml)

5.79 (4.06–9.42)

6.02 (4.39–10.58)

6.64 (4.33–11.38)

 Free estradiol (pg/ml)

0.08 (0.05–0.13)

0.09 (0.05–0.15)

0.09 (0.05–0.15)

 Total testosterone (ng/dl)

18.70 (13.47–25.76)

18.22 (12.93–25.07)

18.09 (13.27–25.85)

 Free testosterone (ng/dl)

0.13 (0.08–0.20)

0.14 (0.10–0.23)

0.14 (0.10–0.22)

 SHBG (nmol/L)

71.72 (47.57–113.38)

60.70 (40.90–92.75)

60.21 (41.12–93.69)

 Total estradiol (pg/ml)/total testosterone (pg/ml)

0.03 (0.02–0.05)

0.03 (0.02–0.06)

0.04 (0.02–0.06)

  1. Abbreviations: NHS the Nurses’ Health Study, MET metabolic equivalent task, AHEI Alternative Healthy Eating Index, SHBG sex hormone-binding globulin
  2. aAll variables are standardized by age at blood draw except age. Mean (SD) is presented for continuous variables and percentage for categorical variables, unless otherwise specified
  3. bThe average calculated using the two adjacent questionnaires most proximate to blood draw
  4. cPhysical activity is represented by the product sum of the METS of each specific recreational activity and hours spent on that activity per week
  5. dA standard tablet contains 325 mg aspirin and regular users were defined as those who used at least two tablets per week
  6. eThe natural-log transformed biomarker concentrations were back transformed and presented as median values (quartiles). Free estradiol and free testosterone were calculated using a validated algorithm based on total estradiol or total testosterone, SHBG, an assumed constant representing the normal albumin concentration, and the association constants for the binding of estradiol and testosterone to SHBG and albumin