TABLE 2.

Linear mixed effects modeling of lactic acid bacteria and vaginal pH^a

Model and parameters	Result for model
LAB model [logit(LAB) ~ TB + age + 1|subject + ε]
Random effects	Variance	SDb	No. of observations	No. of groups
Subject (intercept)	4.4	2.1	189	28
Residual	7.3	2.7
Fixed effects/contrastsb	Coefficientc	SE	df	P valued
Intercept	−6.1	4.4	150.6	1.7E-01
TB 3 vs. 2	3.3	0.7	183.9	1.1E-05***
TB 4 vs. 3	−0.6	0.5	176.2	2.6E-01
TB 5 vs. 4	0.4	0.7	176.7	5.6E-01
Age	0.7	0.4	151.7	4.1E-02*
Vaginal pH model (pH ~ TB + menarche status + age + 1|subject + ε)
Random effects	Variance	SD	No. of observations	No. of groups
Subject (intercept)	0.6	0.8	122	20
Residual	0.4	0.6
Fixed effects/contrastsb	Coefficientc	SE	df	P valued
Intercept	9.3	1.4	112.5	2.1E-09***
TB 3 vs. 2	−0.3	0.2	108.6	2.1E-01
TB 4 vs. 3	0.0	0.2	105.5	8.4E-01
TB 5 vs. 4	0.0	0.2	104.2	8.6E-01
Postmenarche vs. premenarche	−0.2	0.2	115.5	3.7E-01
Age	−0.3	0.1	113.4	7.1E-03**

^aLAB, lactic acid bacterium proportion; TB, Tanner breast stage; ε, random error; SD, standard deviation; SE, standard error; df, degrees of freedom.

^bContrasts between successive Tanner stages were made, excluding stage 1 (not represented).

^cMarginal slope of the fixed effect on the response.

^dSignificance is indicated as follows: *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001.