TABLE 1.
Baseline characteristics of the study population of the EPIC nested case-control study on hepatocellular carcinoma1
| Characteristics | Cases | Controls |
|---|---|---|
| n | 147 | 147 |
| Sex, n | ||
| Male | 102 | 102 |
| Female | 45 | 45 |
| Lag time to cancer diagnosis, y | 6.35 (1.18, 10.26) | — |
| Age at blood collection, y | 60.1 (50.7, 68.8) | 60.1 (50.9, 68.9) |
| Height, cm | 167.7 (152.3, 180.7) | 169.3 (156.1, 181.0) |
| Weight, kg | 79.8 (59.0, 102.2) | 78.3 (60.6, 93.0) |
| BMI, kg/m2 | 28.2 (23.0, 34.9) | 27.3 (22.0, 32.5) |
| Total energy, kcal/d | 2260.8 (1381.4, 3169.3) | 2276.6 (1495.1, 3140.6) |
| Country | ||
| Denmark | 25 | 25 |
| Germany | 32 | 32 |
| Greece | 16 | 16 |
| Italy | 28 | 28 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 4 |
| Spain | 11 | 11 |
| Sweden | 16 | 16 |
| United Kingdom | 15 | 15 |
| Alcohol intake at recruitment, g/d | ||
| Among consumers | 29.6 (1.08, 80.76) | 16.8 (1.27, 41.27) |
| % of never drinkers (<0.1 g/d) | 13.6 | 6.1 |
| Physical activity, metabolic equivalent h/wk | 77.9 (18.9, 150.5) | 83.3 (21.6, 157.2) |
| Lifetime alcohol consumption, g/d2 | ||
| Among consumers | 33.6 (2.13, 74.42) | 19.7 (2.17, 41.32) |
| % of never drinkers (<0.1 g/d) | 3.1 | 4.1 |
| Diet score2 | 25.7 (16.0, 33.0) | 27.4 (20.6, 30.0) |
| Hepatitis infection2,3 | ||
| Yes | 41 | 5 |
| No | 106 | 142 |
| Diabetes at baseline2 | ||
| Yes | 19 | 10 |
| No | 128 | 137 |
| Smoking status2 | ||
| Current smokers, >15 cigarettes/d | 25 | 23 |
| Current smokers, ≤15 cigarettes/d | 34 | 10 |
| Former smokers, quit ≤10 y | 17 | 25 |
| Former smokers, quit >10y | 29 | 29 |
| Never | 42 | 60 |
1Values are presented as means with 10th and 90th percentiles in parentheses for continuous variables and as frequencies for categorical variables. EM, expectation maximization; EPIC, European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.
2There were respectively 42, 12, 76, 29, and 7 missing values for lifetime alcohol consumption, diet score, hepatitis, diabetes, and smoking; they were imputed with an EM algorithm using the covariance matrix of the data.
3Prior to EM, there were 41 hepatitis infections (3 in controls and 38 in cases). After imputation, there were 46 hepatitis infections (5 in controls and 41 in cases). Of the initial distribution of the 41 hepatitis patients, 26 had hepatitis C and 15 had hepatitis B, with 3 having both hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus.