Table 8.

Pairwise Comparison of Serum Zinc Levels Between Healthy Individuals and Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease of Varying Severity Degrees.^a

Groups	Mean Difference	q	P Value
1, 2	18.89	3.41	.049
1, 3	33.95	4.17	.011
1, 4	29.12	4.11	.020
2, 3	15.30	3.54	.039
2, 4	10.23	3.44	.048
3, 4	−5.07	1.58	.557

Abbreviations: AD, Alzheimer’s disease; HC, healthy control.

^aGroup 1 represents HC group, group 2 is mild AD group, group 3 is moderate AD group, and group 4 is severe AD group. The pairwise comparison was performed for all permutations of the groups.