Table 3. Relationship of confounding factors with respect to treatment groups.

COVARIATES	Estimated Marginal mean	p-value	Partial eta squared
Seasonal variation		0.288	0.012
Autumn	37.32 ± 1.45
Winter	37.00 ± 1.49
Spring	34.00 ± 1.76
Average sun-exposure		0.240	0.006
< 15 min	37.21 ± 1.26
> 15 min	34.95 ± 1.37
Use of sunblock	36.88 ± 1.93	0.607	0.001
Body area covered		0.758	0.000
Fully covered	36.56 ± 1.74
Partially covered	35.94 ± 1.00
Baseline VD level		0.245	0.375
Control	24.73 ± 1.87
G1	31.40 ± 2.16
G2	43.07 ± 1.77
G3	42.23 ± 1.48

P values are calculated using, General Linear Model (one-way ANCOVA) to adjust the confounding variables