Table 3.
Lifestyle, clinical characteristics, and inflammatory markers in study participants by education status*
| Characteristic | Education level (No. of participants, %) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| low (n = 244) | P† | medium (n = 252) | P‡ | high (n = 161) | |
| Smoking status: | |||||
| current smoker | 63 (25.8) | 0.043 | 91 (36.1) | 0.348 | 47 (29.2) |
| former smoker | 73 (29.9) | <0.001 | 88 (34.9) | 0.237 | 70 (43.5) |
| Pack years of smoking (mean ± standard deviation) | 39.34 ± 27.3 | 0.302 | 44.32 ± 30.49 | 0.637 | 42.73 ± 24.27 |
| Alcohol consumption (current and former drinkers): | 86 (35.2) | 0.243 | 90 (35.7) | 0.281 | 66 (41.0) |
| daily alcohol consumption, dL (mean ± SD) | 0.22 ± 0.59 | 0.208 | 0.23 ± 0.56 | 0.149 | 0.16 ± 0.24 |
| Physical activity (times per month): | |||||
| 0-4 | 235 (96.3) | <0.001 | 230 (91.3) | 0.042 | 137 (85.1) |
| 5-8 | 9 (3.7) | 0.001 | 19 (7.5) | 0.068 | 21 (13.0) |
| 9+ | 0 | - | 3 (1.2) | 0.350 | 3 (1.9) |
| Obesity (body mass index ≥30 kg/m2) | 56 (22.9) | 0.664 | 51 (20.2) | 0.829 | 34 (21.1) |
| Stroke | 103 (42.2) | 0.094 | 98 (38.9) | 0.639 | 59 (36.6) |
| Depression | 62 (25.4) | 0.546 | 53 (21.0) | 0.751 | 37 (23.0) |
| Increased high sensitivity C-reactive protein (≥3 mg/L) | 110 (45.1) | <0.001 | 98 (38.9) | 0.001 | 38 (23.6) |
| Increased fibrinogen (>4 g/L) | 70 (28.7) | 0.022 | 60 (23.8) | 0.153 | 29 (18.0) |
*Results of univariate logistic regression analysis. Comparison of low to high education was adjusted to sex. Comparison of medium to high education was adjusted to age.
†Low education group compared with high education group.
‡Medium education group compared with high education group.