Table 3.

Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs; conditional logistic regression) for the association between serum ghrelin concentration and colorectal cancer in the ATBC Study.

	Serum ghrelin: continuous1			Serum ghrelin: quartiles
Group				Q1		Q2		Q3		Q4
	OR	95% CI	Pvalue	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI	OR	95% CI		Ptrend
Colorectal cancer (n=523)
Case number				n = 185		n =110		n =103		n =125
Crude	1.05	0.99, 1.12	0.11	1.65	1.15, 2.34	0.95	0.66, 1.35	0.86	0.61, 1.21	REF	0.01
Multivariable2	1.04	0.97, 1.11	0.29	1.57	1.05, 2.34	0.92	0.62, 1.34	0.84	0.58, 1.20	REF	0.03
Colon cancer (n=284)
Case number				n = 103		n = 58		n =54		n = 69
Crude	1.04	0.95, 1.14	0.40	1.56	0.96, 2.54	0.80	0.50, 1.28	0.81	0.50, 1.30	REF	0.13
Multivariable2	1.00	0.91, 1.11	0.93	1.37	0.78, 2.40	0.66	0.39, 1.14	0.73	0.43, 1.22	REF	0.38
Rectal cancer (n=239)
Case number				n = 82		n = 52		n = 49		n = 56
Crude	1.08	0.97, 1.18	0.15	1.82	1.05, 3.15	1.18	0.68, 2.05	0.94	0.56, 1.57	REF	0.02
Multivariable2	1.08	0.97, 1.20	0.15	2.14	1.13, 4.03	1.27	0.70, 2.30	0.98	0.57, 1.70	REF	0.01

¹Continuous ORs are scaled to 176 pg/mL, which is one half of the inter-quartile range in the controls (75^th percentile – 25^th percentile ÷ 2) and interpreted as the change per unit decrease in serum ghrelin.

²Adjusted ORs and 95% CIs were calculated using models which included: education (post-primary school), total years of smoking, total cigarettes/day, BMI (kg/m²), diabetes (either self-reported history of diabetes or blood glucose ≥ 126 mg/dL), daily analgesic use for >1 month (yes/no), alcohol (g/day), red meat consumption (g/day), processed meat consumption (g/day), fruit intake (g/day), vegetable intake (g/day), total dietary fiber (g/day), and ATBC treatment group assignment