Table 2.

Correlations between cardiovascular risk factors and the inflammatory markers

Variables	Ln IL-6	Ln sIL-6R	Ln CRP	Ln Fibrinogen
Agea	0.007	0.16†	0.05	0.04
Body mass indexa	0.13◊	−0.01	0.33‡	0.17†
Physical activitya	−0.24‡	0.06	−0.28‡	−0.15◊
Smoking statusb	0.24‡	−0.06	0.12◊	0.20‡
History of CHDb	0.21‡	−0.13◊	0.10	−0.07
Hypertensionb	0.08	0.13◊	0.12◊	−0.02
Diabetesb	0.11◊	−0.10	0.09	0.03

^◊P < 0.05

^†P < 0.01

^‡P < 0.001

^aPearson correlation coefficients for continuous variables

^bSpearman correlation coefficients for categorical variables

Ln, natural logarithm; CHD, coronary heart disease; IL-6, interleukin-6; sIL-6R, soluble interleukin-6 receptor; CRP, C-reactive protein