Table 1.
Main demographics of the participants
| SARS-CoV-2 | Control | Puncorr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 401 | 384 | – |
| Age at scan 1 (mean ± s.d. (range)) | 58.9 ± 7.0 (46.9–80.2) | 60.2 ± 7.4 (47.1–79.8) | 0.15 |
| Age at scan 2 (mean ± s.d. (range)) | 62.1 ± 6.7 (51.3–81.4) | 63.3 ± 7.1 (51.3–81.3) | 0.08 |
| Sex (male/female) | 172 (42.9%)/229 (57.1%) | 164 (42.7%)/220 (57.3%) | 0.96 |
| Ethnicity (white/non-whitea) | 388 (96.8%)/13 (3.2%) | 373 (97.1%)/11 (2.9%) | 0.76 |
| Years between scans 1 and 2 (mean ± s.d. (range)) | 3.2 ± 1.6 (1.0–7.0) | 3.2 ± 1.6 (1.0–6.9) | 0.98 |
| Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) | 130.3 ± 17.3 | 132.1 ± 17.6 | 0.16 |
| Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) | 78.7 ± 10.6 | 79.0 ± 10.2 | 0.63 |
| Diagnosed diabetes | 18 (4.5%) | 16 (4.2%) | 0.82 |
| Weight (kg) | 76.4 ± 15.8 | 75.2 ± 14.4 | 0.65 |
| Waist/hip ratio | 0.87 ± 0.09 | 0.86 ± 0.09 | 0.37 |
| BMI (kg m−2) | 26.7 ± 4.4 | 26.6 ± 4.3 | 0.61 |
| Alcohol-intake frequency (a.u.) | 3.1 ± 1.3 | 3.0 ± 1.4 | 1.00 |
| Tobacco smoking | 0.61 0.92 | 0.65 0.89 | 0.87 |
| Townsend deprivation index | −1.5 ± 2.9 | −1.6 ± 2.9 | 0.65 |
We used the 'last observation carried forward' imputation method (see the ‘Baseline group comparisons’ section in the Methods). Nonparametric tests were used whenever a variable for each group was not normally distributed (Lilliefors P < 0.05). Two-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests were used for age at scan 1 or scan 2, years between scan 1 and scan 2, alcohol-intake frequency and tobacco smoking; χ2 tests were used for sex, ethnicity and diagnosed diabetes; and Mann–Whitney U-tests were used for the systolic and diastolic blood pressures, weight, waist/hip ratio, BMI and Townsend deprivation index. a.u., arbitrary units.
aThe white/non-white distinction was made as numbers were too low to allow for a finer distinction.