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. 2020 Apr 18;35(4):950–957. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dez305

Table II.

Omega fatty acid serum concentrations, presented with the mean ± SD, in fertile, subfertile and infertile women with age-adjusted fecundability ratios.

Omega fatty acid Fertile pregnant 1–3 months (n = 50) Subfertile pregnant 4–12 months (n = 100) Infertile (n = 50) P-value* Age-adjusted fecundability ratio** (95% CI)
Omega-3
 ALA 0.054 ± 0.045 0.043 ± 0.031 0.050 ± 0.043 0.201 0.98 (0.96, 1.01)
 EPA 0.004 ± 0.003 0.005 ± 0.037 0.004 ± 0.029 0.363 0.88 (0.75, 1.03)
 DHA 0.023 ± 0.014 0.025 ± 0.016 0.024 ± 0.012 0.829 0.95 (0.79, 1.14)
 Omega-3 PUFAa 0.082 ± 0.056 0.073 ± 0.043 0.080 ± 0.53 0.507 0.99 (0.96, 1.01)
 Long-chain omega-3 PUFAb 0.028 ± 0.017 0.030 ± 0.019 0.028 ± 0.015 0.737 0.97 (0.91, 1.04)
Omega-6
 LA 0.595 ± 0.468 0.522 ± 0.371 0.605 ± 0.472 0.423 0.85 (0.66, 1.09)
 DGLA 0.007 ± 0.004 0.007 ± 0.004 0.007 ± 0.003 0.958 1.01 (0.73, 1.40)
 AA 0.046 ± 0.018 0.048 ± 0.018 0.048 ± 0.015 0.798 0.97 (0.91, 1.03)
 Omega-6 PUFAc 0.648 ± 0.486 0.577 ± 0.386 0.671 ± 0.484 0.402 0.86 (0.69, 1.09)
 Ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 8.075 ± 2.283 7.86 ± 2.068 8.500 ± 2.620 0.277 1.01 (0.97, 1.06)
 Ratio of LA to ALA 12.122 ± 3.246 13.125 ± 4.395 12.816 ± 3.812 0.348 1.04 (0.79, 1.36)
 Total PUFA 0.730 ± 0.538 0.650 ± 0.426 0.751 ± 0.533 0.411 0.87 (0.71, 1.08)

*ANOVA.

**For LA, Omega-6 PUFA and Total PUFA the fecundability ratio is for a 1 μmol/ml increase in concentration. All other omega fatty acid variables were multiplied by 100 and therefore the fecundability ratio represents a 1/100 μmol/ml change in concentration.

a

aSum of ALA, EPA, DHA.

b

bSum of EPA, DHA.

c

cSum of LA, DGLA, AA.

AA, arachidonic acid; ALA, alpha linolenic acid; ANOVA, analysis of variance; CI, confidence interval; DGLA, dihommo-gamma linolenic acid; DHA, docosahexaenoic acid; EPA, eicosapentaenoic acid; LA, linoleic acid; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Because of using inverse probability weighting, the 95% CIs were calculated using robust variance.