TABLE 3 .

Spearman’s correlation coefficient between parameters associated with the tongue microbiota status

Parameter	Correlation with parametera
	Tongue coating score	Total bacterial density	No. of observed OTUs	Relative bacterial abundance (%)				Total fungal density
				Periodontitis- associated taxa	MS and lactobacilli	Group I commensals	Group II commensals
Tongue coating score		0.30	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
Total bacterial density (log copies)	0.30		NS	−0.19	−0.24	NS	0.14	NS
No. of observed OTUs	NS	NS		0.38	NS	−0.22	0.20	−0.11
Relative bacterial abundance (%)
Periodontitis-associated taxa	NS	−0.19	0.38		0.28	NS	−0.13	0.10
MS and lactobacilli	NS	−0.24	NS	0.28		0.47	−0.50	0.35
Group I commensals	NS	NS	−0.22	NS	0.47		−0.75	0.32
Group II commensals	NS	0.14	0.20	−0.13	−0.50	−0.75		−0.33
Total fungal density (log copies)	NS	NS	−0.11	0.10	0.35	0.32	−0.33

^aAn absolute correlation coefficient of >0.3 is shown in boldface. NS, not significant.