TABLE 5.
Serum and colon tocopherol concentrations in each diet arm at baseline and 6 months for 120 subjects randomized across two diet groups: Healthy Eating and Mediterranean. Data shown is mean ± SE of tocopherols in serum and in colon mucosal biopsies. The p-values for the fixed factors of time, supplement use and diet group assignment are also shown from linear regression models of the data.
| Variable | Healthy Eating Group |
Mediterranean Group |
P-values for Fixed Factors 1 |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 6 months | Baseline | 6 months | Time | User | Group*Time | Group*Time*User | |
| Serum Concentration, nmol/l | ||||||||
| α-Tocopherol, all subjects | 30.0 ± 2.0 | 31.3 ± 1.8 | 34.6 ± 1.9 | 31.1 ± 1.7 | 0.247 | <0.001 | 0.079 | 0.004 |
| Supplement users | 31.1 ± 2.5 | 34.6 ± 2.22 | 41.3 ± 2.9 | 35.3 ± 2.52 | - | - | - | - |
| Non-users | 29.0 ± 2.4 | 27.9 ± 2.2 | 27.6 ± 2.0 | 27.2 ± 1.9 | - | - | - | - |
| γ-Tocopherol, all subjects | 4.29 ± 0.42 | 4.15 ± 0.35 | 4.56 ± 0.42 | 3.29 ± 0.34 | 0.054 | 0.724 | 0.403 | 0.814 |
| Supplement users | 3.83 ± 0.56 | 4.13 ± 0.43 | 4.82 ± 0.65 | 3.38 ± 0.48 | - | - | - | - |
| Non-users | 4.75 ± 0.53 | 4.15 ± 0.43 | 4.30 ± 0.46 | 3.22 ± 0.38 | - | - | - | - |
| Colon Biopsy Concentration, pmol/mg protein | ||||||||
| α-Tocopherol, all subjects | 687 ± 95 | 724 ± 128 | 775 ± 95 | 782 ± 128 | 0.999 | 0.054 | 0.246 | 0.732 |
| Supplement users | 803 ± 121 | 829 ± 172 | 943 ± 142 | 1061 ± 193 | - | - | - | - |
| Non-users | 571 ± 114 | 620 ± 165 | 597 ± 98 | 506 ± 149 | - | - | - | - |
| γ-Tocopherol, all subjects | 220 ± 31 | 224 ± 37 | 214 ± 31 | 163 ± 37 | 0.082 | 0.203 | 0.711 | 0.882 |
| Supplement users | 235 ± 41 | 271 ± 48 | 252 ± 48 | 199 ± 55 | - | - | - | - |
| Non-users | 204 ± 38 | 178 ± 48 | 177 ± 33 | 127 ± 42 | - | - | - | - |
The mixed linear regression models included the following covariates: age in years, current smoking, alcohol intake in grams per day, gender and BMI in kg/m2. Transformations required to achieve normality were log for tocopherol measures and natural log for dietary and supplement nutrient intakes. Untransformed means and SE are shown for ease of interpretation. Of the 120 subjects, 61 were in the Healthy group and 59 in the Mediterranean group. At 6 months, there were 46 and 47 subjects in the two groups, respectively. One serum sample at baseline and one biopsy sample at 6 months were not available for analysis of tocopherols.
Significantly different from baseline within that group from pairwise analysis.