Table 3.

Linear regression analyses for the associations between urinary concentrations of ∑OH-fluorene (µg/g creatinine) and cancer biomarkers among chimney sweeps, controls and creosote-exposed workers

	Model 1 (unadjusted)		Model 2 (age-adjusted and smoking-adjusted)		Model 3 (age-adjusted and pack-years-adjusted among smokers)
	B (95% CI)	P value	B (95% CI)	P value	B (95% CI)	P value
Chimney sweeps	n=143 *		n=142*		n=27†
Relative telomere length	−0.013 (−0.036 to 0.0096)	0.25	−0.0046 (−0.031 to 0.022)	0.73	−0.019 (−0.073 to 0.034)	0.46
Relative mtDNAcn	−0.0017 (−0.039 to 0.035)	0.93	0.0081 (−0.038 to 0.054)	0.73	0.028 (−0.097 to 0.15)	0.65
F2RL3_CpG1	−6.0 (−7.1 to −4.9)	<0.001‡	−4.0 (−5.3 to −2.7)	<0.001‡	−5.9 (−9.5 to −2.3)	0.003
F2RL3_CpG2 (cg03636183)	−5.1 (−6.2 to −4.0)	<0.001‡	−2.7 (−3.9 to −1.5)	<0.001‡	−4.2 (−7.6 to −0.8)	0.019
AHRR_CpG1	−10 (−12 to to 8.3)	<0.001‡	−5.9 (−8.2 to −3.5)	<0.001‡	−8.2 (−13 to −3.5)	0.002
AHRR_CpG2	−10 (−12 to to 8.5)	<0.001‡	−5.8 (−7.8 to −3.8)	<0.001‡	−7.7 (−12 to −3.7)	0.001
AHRR_CpG3 (cg05575921)	−14 (−16 to to 12)	<0.001‡	−7.1 (−9.6 to −4.7)	<0.001‡	−10 (−16 to to 5.1)	0.001
Controls	n=147 *		n=147 *		n=25†
Relative telomere length	−0.016 (−0.044 to 0.012)	0.27	0.049 (−0.0014 to 0.099)	0.06	0.060 (−0.0023 to 0.12)	0.058
Relative mtDNAcn	−0.069 (−0.12 to -0.021)	0.005‡	−0.0038 (−0.091 to 0.084)	0.93	−0.012 (−0.10 to 0.079)	0.78
F2RL3_CpG1	−6.5 (−7.8 to −5.1)	<0.001‡	−3.9 (−6.3 to −1.6)	0.001‡	−2.4 (−6.7 to 1.9)	0.26
F2RL3_CpG2 (cg03636183)	−6.8 (−8.0 to −5.6)	<0.001‡	−3.7 (−5.7 to −1.8)	<0.001‡	−2.6 (−6.3 to 1.1)	0.15
AHRR_CpG1	−12 (−14 to to 9.9)	<0.001‡	−6.8 (−11 to −2.7)	0.001‡	−3.0 (−9.2 to 3.2)	0.32
AHRR_CpG2	−11 (−13 to to 8.9)	<0.001‡	−5.7 (-9.3 to -2.0)	0.003‡	−3.3 (−8.9 to 2.3)	0.23
AHRR_CpG3 (cg05575921)	−18 (−20 to to 16)	<0.001‡	−8.2 (−12 to −4.6)	<0.001‡	−5.5 (−11 to 0.1)	0.055
Creosote-exposed workers	n=19		n=18		n=3
Relative telomere length	−0.00045 (−0.0026 to 0.0017)	0.66	−0.001 (−0.0039 to 0.0018)	0.45	–	–
Relative mtDNAcn	0.00088 (−0.0038 to 0.0055)	0.69	−0.00012 (−0.0066 to 0.0063)	0.97	–	–
F2RL3_CpG1	−0.10 (−0.24 to 0.037)	0.14	−0.10 (−0.29 to 0.087)	0.27	–	–
F2RL3_CpG2 (cg03636183)	−0.086 (−0.22 to 0.045)	0.18	−0.12 (−0.29 to 0.052)	0.16	–	–
AHRR_CpG1	−0.081 (−0.36 to 0.20)	0.55	−0.12 (−0.47 to 0.23)	0.47	–	–
AHRR_CpG2	−0.079 (−0.35 to 0.19)	0.55	−0.12 (−0.46 to 0.22)	0.46	–	–
AHRR_CpG3 (cg05575921)	−0.11 (−0.42 to 0.19)	0.45	−0.062 (−0.40 to 0.27)	0.69	–	–

Model 1: (cancer biomarker: outcome)=intercept + B.(∑OH-fluorene).

Model 2: (cancer biomarker: outcome)=intercept + B(∑OH-fluorene)+B1.age+B2.smoking.

Model 3: (cancer biomarker: outcome)=intercept + B(∑OH-fluorene)+B1.age+B2.(pack-years).

*There was one missing case for some of the outcomes (eg, AHRR_CpG3_cg05575921).

†There were two missing cases among chimney sweeps and four missing cases among the controls.

‡Significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons (FDR<0.05)

B, unstandardised beta estimate; mtDNAcn, mitochondrial DNA copy number; ∑OH-fluorene, sum of 2-hydroxyfluorene and 3-hydroxyfluorene.