Table 3.

Associations between the stool consistency and all-cause, cancer-, and CVD-specific mortality.

Stool Consistency	Proportion of Deaths	Mortality Rate (per 100,000 Person Years)	HR (95% CI)
All mortality
Separate hard lumps, like nuts	40/319	1302	1.36 (0.99, 1.88)
Like a sausage but lumpy	93/809	990	1.23 (0.98, 1.56)
A sausage shape with cracks in the surface	313/3607	762	1.13 (0.94, 1.36)
Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft	769/7545	922	Ref.
Soft blobs with clear-cut edges	128/1162	1189	1.48 ** (1.17, 1.86)
Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool	131/983	1323	1.20 (0.88, 1.64)
Watery, no solid pieces	28/149	2452	1.41 (0.86, 2.33)
Cancer mortality
Separate hard lumps, like nuts	6/319	252	1.25 (0.39, 3.95)
Like a sausage but lumpy	13/809	106	0.57 (0.30, 1.07)
A sausage shape with cracks in the surface	78/3607	191	1.21 (0.88, 1.66)
Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft	187/7545	219	Ref.
Soft blobs with clear-cut edges	31/1162	310	1.60 * (1.02,2.50)
Mushy stool, or watery	42/1132	333	1.25 (0.69, 2.29)
CVD mortality
Separate hard lumps, like nuts	9/319	283	1.80 (0.84, 3.88)
Like a sausage but lumpy	19/809	191	1.45 (0.87, 2.41)
A sausage shape with cracks in the surface	62/3607	136	1.04 (0.76, 1.43)
Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft	145/7545	171	Ref.
Soft blobs with clear-cut edges	26/1162	218	1.48 (0.86, 2.56)
Mushy stool, or watery	23/1132	241	1.19 (0.70, 2.00)

The Cox regression model adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, BMI, physical activity, smoking status, dietary fiber intake, alcohol consumption, and annual family income. * p-value < 0.05, ** p-value < 0.01. Type 7 (Watery, no solid pieces) was incorporated into type 6 (Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool) for analysis since it had less than 5 deaths.