Table 3.
Associations between circulating leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and endometriosis stratified by menstrual pain and infertility status in the New England Case-Control Study (NEC), 1992–2002
| Mild or no menstrual pain | Moderate or severe menstrual pain | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Endometriosis | Endometriosis | ||||||
| Leukocyte Telomere Length | Yes | No | Odds Ratio (95%CI)a | Yes | No | Odds Ratio (95%CI)a | p-hetb |
| Tertile | |||||||
| T1 (longest) | 5 (19) | 193 (35) | ref | 5 (19) | 100 (38) | ref | 0.68 |
| T2 | 12 (44) | 177 (32) | 2.37 (0.80–7.01) | 9 (35) | 83 (32) | 2.34 (0.73–7.51) | |
| T3 (shortest) | 10 (37) | 188 (34) | 2.00 (0.65–6.10) | 12 (46) | 78 (30) | 3.50 (1.12–10.97) | |
| p-trendc | 0.21 | 0.03 | |||||
| No infertility | Infertility | ||||||
| Endometriosis | Endometriosis | ||||||
| Leukocyte Telomere Length | Yes | No | Odds Ratio (95%CI)a | Yes | No | Odds Ratio (95%CI)a | p-hetb |
| Tertile | |||||||
| T1 (longest) | 6 (21) | 251 (37) | ref | 4 (17) | 44 (31) | ref | 0.69 |
| T2 | 13 (45) | 216 (32) | 2.50 (0.92–6.80) | 8 (33) | 45 (32) | 2.00 (0.53–7.52) | |
| T3 (shortest) | 10 (34) | 215 (32) | 1.90 (0.66–5.46) | 12 (50 | 53 (37) | 3.40 (0.93–12.50) | |
| p-trendc | 0.2 | 0.06 | |||||
a
Adjusted for age (continuous), smoking status (never, current, former), body mass index (BMI) (continuous), oral contraceptive use (never, ever), parity (nulliparous, parous), age at menarche (< 12 , 12≤ year)
b
Effect modification was assessed with a likelihood ratio test that compared the model with the cross-product term between the exposure variable and stratifying variable with the model with main effects only.
c
p-trend was calculated by modeling the median of each category as continuous term.