TABLE 2.

Partial Spearman's correlations between plasma fatty acids and dietary factors in the NHS and HPFS¹

	Plasma fatty acid intercorrelations (n = 594)
	14:0	15:0	17:0	trans 16:1n−7
Dietary factors2
Whole-fat dairy intake, servings/d	0.05	0.19**	0.12**	0.10**
Low-fat dairy intake, servings/d	0.04	0.11**	0.11**	0.07
Dairy fat intake, % of total fat	0.08*	0.22**	0.16**	0.13**
Unprocessed meat, servings/d	−0.02	0.04	0.09**	0.09**
Processed meat, servings/d	−0.01	0.03	0.03	0.04
Plasma fatty acids
14:0		0.61**	0.01	0.21**
15:0			0.46**	0.45**
17:0				0.44**
trans 16:1n−7

¹Correlations were based on pooled individual-level data in controls from both cohorts. Correlations with diet (n = 577) were adjusted for age (y), sex, BMI (in kg/m²), smoking (never, current, former, or missing), fasting status at blood draw, date of blood collection (mo), and consumption of total energy (kcal/d), total fat (percentage of energy), low-fat dairy (servings/d; when whole-fat dairy was evaluated), and whole-fat dairy (servings/d; when low-fat dairy was evaluated). Fatty acid intercorrelations were adjusted for age and sex only. **P < 0.05, *P = 0.05–0.10. HPFS, Health Professionals Follow-Up Study; NHS, Nurses’ Health Study.

²Dietary habits were assessed using the average of self-reported consumption in 1986 and 1990 in the NHS and 1990 and 1994 in the HPFS.