Table 5.

Serum levels of total cholesterol for pooled calcium and pooled non-calcium intervention groups, stratified by cholesterol-lowering medication use^*

	Baseline			6-mo follow-up			Absolute Rx effect†			Proportional Rx effect‡
Treatment Group	N	Mean ± SE	P§	N	Mean ± SE	P§	N	Mean ± SE	P§	(%)
Taking cholesterol-lowering medications
Cholesterol (mg/dL)
Non-calcium	11	231.6 ± 12.6		9	211.1 ± 13.4		9	0		-
Calcium	21	215.6 ± 9.1	0.31	17	194.5 ± 9.7	0.32	17	−0.73 ± 13.9	0.96	−0.3
Not taking cholesterol-lowering medications
Cholesterol (mg/dL)
Non-calcium	35	225.0 ± 7.7		31	220.7 ± 8.0		31	0		-
Calcium	23	247.7 ± 9.5	0.07	21	224.5 ± 9.8	0.77	21	−19.0 ± 10.9	0.09	−7.7
P for interaction¶ = 0.10

^*Pooled calcium supplementation group (calcium) included participants from calcium alone and calcium plus vitamin D groups. Pooled non-calcium supplementation group (non-calcium) included participants from placebo and vitamin D alone groups.

^†Absolute treatment effect = [(pooled calcium group follow-up) – (pooled calcium group baseline)] – [(pooled non-calcium group follow-up) - (pooled non-calcium group baseline)].

^‡Proportional treatment effect = (absolute treatment effect / pooled calcium group baseline) x 100%.

^§P value for difference between pooled calcium group and pooled non-calcium group from repeated measures MIXED model.

^¶Interaction between treatment (calcium/non-calcium) and cholesterol-lowing medication use (yes/no).