Table 3.

Results of the two-way ANOVA evaluating the effects of body mass index (BMI), age and their interaction on N-acylethanolamine (NAE) circulating levels and their ratios in the male cohort. Data are shown as P values (sign of the coefficients) of the evaluated effects: non italic data show first order (main) effects, italic data show second order effects (i.e., the interactions between the two main effects). Significant P values are reported in bold.

Factors	Cohort	AEA	PEA	OEA	PEA/AEA	OEA/AEA	OEA/PEA
Effect of BMI§	Overall	<0.001 (+)	<0.001 (+)	0.022 (+)	0.032 (−)	0.017 (−)	0.561 (−)
Effect of age*	Overall	0.474 (−)	0.657 (−)	0.340 (+)	0.589 (+)	0.014 (+)	0.039 (+)
	NW*	0.987 (+)	0.372 (+)	0.969 (+)	0.244 (+)	0.920 (−)	0.288 (−)
	OW*	0.725 (−)	0.828 (−)	0.109 (+)	0.823 (+)	0.006 (+)	0.006 (+)
	OB*	0.487 (−)	0.406 (−)	0.728 (+)	0.990 (+)	0.097 (+)	0.107 (+)
Interaction BMI x age$		0.522 (−)	0.261 (−)	0.763 (+)	0.639 (−)	0.121 (+)	0.057 (+)

AEA: N-arachidonoylethanolamide; PEA: N-palmitoylethanolamide; OEA: N-oleoylethanolamide; NW: normal weight; OW: overweight; OB: obese.

^§ Effect of BMI on NAE levels and ratios. Positive effect (+): NAE values increased with increasing BMI classes; negative effect (−): NAE values decreased with increasing BMI classes. * Effect of age on NAE levels and ratios. Positive effect (+): NAE values increased with age; negative effect (−): NAE values decreased with age. ^$ Interaction between BMI and age effects on NAE levels and ratios. Positive interaction (+): the positive (or negative) effect of age increased (or decreased) with increasing BMI classes (i.e., the positive (or negative) effect of BMI increased (or decreased) with increasing). Negative interaction (−): the positive (or negative) effect of age decreased (or increased) with increasing BMI classes (i.e., the positive (or negative) effect of BMI decreased (or increased) with increasing age).