Mercury, Autoimmunity, and Environmental Factors on Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Lands

Table 1

Biomonitoring and ANA ≥2+ results linked with study participant characteristics.

Population characteristic	𝑁	Participants with THg >LOD*	Hg biomarker median (interquartile range)	Hg biomarker mean (95% CI)	ANA reading ≥2+ (𝑛, %)
All participants	75	36 (36%)	<LOD (<LOD–0.87)	0.75 (0.55–0.95)	23 (31%)
Gender
Male	38	23 (61%)	0.37 (<LOD–1.81)	1.01 (0.67–1.37)	2 (5%)
Female	37	13 (35%)	<LOD (<LOD–0.56)	0.48 (0.32–0.63)	9 (24%)
Smoking score
(1) Low	32	17 (53%)	0.37 (<LOD–0.74)	0.67 (0.41–0.92)	8 (25%)
(2) Medium	18	8 (44%)	<LOD (<LOD–1.24)	0.82 (0.36–1.28)	3 (17%)
(3) High	25	11 (44%)	<LOD (<LOD–1.21)	0.81 (0.39–1.23)	7 (28%)
Active smoker
Yes	42	19 (45%)	<LOD (<LOD–0.96)	0.77 (0.49–1.05)	4 (10%)
No	31	16 (52%)	0.37 (<LOD–0.87)	0.76 (0.40–1.06)	7 (23%)
Fish score
(1) Low	41	17 (59%)	<LOD (<LOD–0.60)	0.59 (0.36–0.82)	7 (17%)
(2) Medium	18	10 (56%)	0.35 (<LOD–1.53)	0.90 (0.38–1.43)	2 (11%)
(3) High	16	9 (56%)	0.54 (<LOD–1.89)	0.99 (0.51–1.48)	2 (13%)
Arsenic proximity
Yes	23	7 (30%)	<LOD (<LOD–0.52)	0.45 (0.25–0.64)	7 (30%)
No	52	29 (56%)	0.37 (<LOD–1.27)	0.89 (0.62–1.16)	4 (8%)

∗LOD = 0.32 𝜇g/L.