Table 3.

Correlation between blood lead and saliva lead levels

All dataa	N	Pearson correlation	No BDL in both blood and salivab	N	Pearson correlation
Untransformed data
Overall	904	0.16	Overall	770	0.16
Male	48	0.33	Male	44	0.34
Female	856	0.15	Female	726	0.14
Age ≤25	373	0.11	Age ≤25	323	0.09
Age 26–45	487	0.15	Age 26–45	407	0.16
Age 46 and older	44	0.49	Age 46 and older	40	0.48
PbB (0.1–0.99 μg/dl)	156	−0.07	PbB (0.1–0.99 μg/dl)	97	−0.18
PbB (1.0–4.99 μg/dl)	649	0.04	PbB (1.0–4.99 μg/dl)	580	0.03
PbB (5.0–9.99 μg/dl)	81	0.13	PbB (5.0–9.99 μg/dl)	76	0.11
PbB (≥10.0 μg/dl)	18	0.08	PbB (≥10.0 μg/dl)	17	0.16
Data log-transformed
Overall	904	0.13	Overall	770	0.14
Male	48	0.05	Male	44	0.20
Female	856	0.13	Female	726	0.13
Age ≤25	373	0.12	Age ≤25	323	0.04
Age 26–45	487	0.14	Age 26–45	407	0.18
Age 46 and older	44	0.36	Age 46 and older	40	0.44
Log PbB (−2.31–−0.01)	156	0.01	Log PbB (−2.31–−0.01)	97	−0.18
Log PbB (0–1.61)	649	0.10	Log PbB (0–1.61)	580	0.08
Log PbB (1.61–2.30)	81	−0.01	Log PbB (1.61–2.30)	76	0.09
Log PbB (>2.30)	18	−0.04	Log PbB (>2.30)	17	0.22

^aAll data means that adults with lead levels equal to BDL are given values which are half that of the BDL values ( = 0.14733 μg/dl) which is a half of minimum detectable value.

^bNo BDL means that adults with lead levels equal to BDL are considered to be missing values.