Table 2.
Dietary and erythrocyte fatty acids at baseline and after 12-week intervention.
| H3-L6 intervention
|
P-valuea (within-group) | L6 intervention
|
P-valuea (within-group) | P-valueb (within-group) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre
|
Post
|
Pre
|
Post
|
||||||||
| Median | 25%–75% | Median | 25%–75% | Median | 25%–75% | Median | 25%–75% | ||||
| Dietary fatty acids (n = 55)d | |||||||||||
| n-6 Linoleic acid (en%) | 6.4 | (5.3, 7.4) | 2.5 | (2.2, 3.9) | <0.001 | 7.4 | (5.7, 9.6) | 2.4 | (2.0, 2.9) | <0.001 | |
| n-6 Arachidonic acid (mg) | 110c | (66, 176) | 114c | (69, 195) | 0.75 | 106c | (57, 159) | 48c | (18, 74) | <0.001 | <0.001 |
| n-3 EPA + DHA (mg) | 47c | (20, 71) | 1482c | (374, 2558) | <0.001 | 43c | (25, 73) | 76c | (19, 264) | 0.32 | <0.001 |
| Erythrocyte fatty acids (n = 52)d | |||||||||||
| n-6 Linoleic acid | 11.6 | (10.3, 12.6) | 10.2 | (8.8, 10.8) | <0.001 | 12.2 | (11.0, 13.0) | 10.5 | (9.5, 11.1) | <0.001 | |
| n-6 Arachidonic acid | 14.3 | (12.7, 15.2) | 12.3 | (11.6, 13.0) | 0.001 | 14.2 | (12.1, 15.0) | 13.1 | (12.7, 14.6) | 0.53 | |
| n-6 in HUFA score | 77.1 | (74.6, 78.3) | 60.9 | (57.8, 63.5) | <0.001 | 77.8 | (75.3, 80.5) | 74.6 | (71.2, 77.5) | <0.001 | <0.001 |
| EPA + DHA (n-3 index) | 4.3 | (3.6, 4.8) | 8.5 | (6.8, 9.7) | <0.001 | 3.7 | (2.9, 4.5) | 4.1 | (3.6, 6.2) | <0.001 | <0.001 |
H3-L6, high n-3, low n-6 dietary intervention; L6, low n-6 dietary intervention; n-6 in HUFA score, percentage of n-6 highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) in total HUFA; EPA, eicosapentaenoic acid; DHA, docosahexaenoic acid.
P-values for within-group changes were calculated with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
P-values for effect of diet group assignment on postintervention fatty acids derived from analysis of covariance, adjusting for baseline values.
Chemical analyses of study-provided foods reduced the number of missing database values for arachidonic acid, EPA and DHA, which were not uniformly present for the preintervention phase.
Dietary analysis includes all subjects who completed the intervention and provided both pre- and postintervention 24-hour recalls (H3-L6, n = 27 and L6, n = 28). Erythrocyte analysis includes all subjects who completed the intervention and provided both pre- and postintervention samples (H3-L6, n = 25 and L6, n = 27). Blood draw was unsuccessful for 1 subject and 3 erythrocyte samples were lost prior to analyses. Erythrocyte fatty acids expressed as percent of total fatty acids.