Table 1.

Characteristics of subjects stratified by Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage status

Characteristic	Persistent carriers (n = 30)	Noncarriers (n = 30)	P valuea
No. (%) of female gender	14 (47)	18 (60)	0.3
Mean (SD) age (yr)	26.1 (7.4)	25.0 (5.5)	0.5
Mean (SD) ht (cm)	173.2 (9.6)	172.8 (8.2)	0.8
Mean (SD) wt (kg)	71.4 (19.7)	71.2 (14.7)	1.0
No. (%) smokers	3 (10)	3 (10)	1.0
No. (%) of women using hormonal contraception	10 (71)	11 (61)	0.5
No. (%) with a history of allergy	8 (27)	8 (27)	1.0
Natural log of serum IgE concn (IU/ml)	3.2 (1.9)	2.9 (2.0)	0.5
No. (%) with a history of pyoderma	7 (23)	3 (10)	0.2
Median quantitation score sumb (IQRc)	17 (14–18)	0	<0.0001d
Mean time from 1st to 4th swab in days (SD)	60.4 (20.3)	59.2 (15.2)	0.8

^aUnpaired, two-sided t test or chi-square test.

^bObtained by adding scores from 1 to 6 of four S. aureus positive cultures.

^cIQR, interquartile range.

^dWilcoxon rank-sum test.