Table 4.

Correlations of Age, BMI, and MBD to high and low % collagen. Each characteristic was fit as an independent variable with $\langle {\mu }_{\mathrm{s}}^{\prime }\rangle$ as the dependent variable using Pearson’s correlations and linear fits to establish relationships. Age and BMI were found to be independently associated with $\langle {\mu }_{\mathrm{s}}^{\prime }\rangle$. $\langle {\mu }_{\mathrm{s}}^{\prime }\rangle$ decreased with both age and BMI but exhibited a stronger negative relationship to age in sites with a high percentage of collagen. MBD was positively correlated with $\langle {\mu }_{\mathrm{s}}^{\prime }\rangle$ but not independent of age and BMI.

	Benign		All sites
	$r$	$p$	$r$	$p$
Age	$-0.32$	$4.7\times {10}^{-5}$	$-0.32$	$1.4\times {10}^{-5}$
High % collagen	$-0.40$	0.01	$-0.37$	0.02
Low % collagen	$-0.13$		$-0.18$
BMI	$-0.32$	$4.0\times {10}^{-5}$	$-0.31$	$2.8\times {10}^{-5}$
High % collagen	Ø	NS	Ø	NS
Low % collagen	Ø		Ø
MBD	0.22	0.01	0.21	$4.6\times {10}^{-3}$