Table 9.

Estimates of fatty acid concentrations (μg/ml) in Caucasian and Asian females using hormonal contraceptives

Fatty acid	Caucasian females					East Asian females
	non (n = 161)		HC (n = 137)		p-value	non (n = 234)		HC (n = 43)		p-value
	μg/ml	SD	μg/ml	SD		μg/ml	SD	μg/ml	SD
18:2n6	616.5	138.1	671.1	139.0	<0.01	664.0	140.6	698.0	128.1	<0.05*
18:3n3	14.0	7.3	16.6	6.3	<0.01*	15.3	6.1	17.8	7.7	0.05
20:4n6	115.9	34.1	140.7	36.6	<0.01*	112.4	30.4	123.1	31.6	<0.01*
20:5n3	12.0	8.7	11.3	7.5	0.42	12.6	9.6	14.0	11.3	0.45
22:6n3	27.7	12.1	35.4	11.7	<0.01*	34.8	11.5	37.5	14.7	0.23
[AA/LA]	0.190	0.004	0.213	0.005	<0.01*	0.176	0.005	0.179	0.007	0.81
[DHA/ALA]	2.3	1.1	2.4	1.0	0.42	2.5	1.1	2.4	1.1	0.38
[EPA/ALA]	0.944	0.055	0.741	0.049	<0.01*	0.910	0.052	0.890	0.119	0.89
[DHA/EPA]	2.8	1.2	3.8	1.6	<0.01*	3.6	1.5	4.1	2.6	0.06

Select fatty acids used as substrate and product of D5D and D6D desaturase indices. The * denotes p-values which are significant. P-values were determined using multiple linear regression models which were adjusted for BMI, age, dietary LA, ALA, EPA and DHA, % total energy from dietary fat and physical activity. Caucasian females: n = 298; East Asian Females: n = 277. Abbreviation: SD standard deviation.