Milk Fat Intake and Telomere Length in U.S. Women and Men: The Role of the Milk Fat Fraction

Table 2

Differences in mean telomere length (base pairs) by frequency of milk consumption in U.S. women and men, after adjusting for the covariates ().

	Frequency of milk consumption
Model	Never; ()	Rarely; ()	Sometimes; ()	Often; ()
Model 1					0.8	0.4856
Model 2					0.9	0.4733
Model 3					0.5	0.7129

SE is the standard error of the mean. The four levels of milk consumption frequency were as follows: Never: participants who never consumed milk (, 14.0%); Rarely: adults who consumed milk < once per week (, 13.0%); Sometimes: consumed milk at least once per week, but < once per day (, 24.9%); and Often: consumed milk once per day or more frequently (, 48.1%). The number of subjects in each category above does not take into account the sample weights used for each participant. However, the percentage (%) value following the sample size shows the proportion of subjects in the category with the NHANES sample weights applied. The percentage (%) values are more meaningful than the number of subjects () because the % values represent the proportion of the U.S. adult population that fit the category. Model 1 compares telomere base pairs across each of the four levels of milk consumption frequency, after adjusting for the demographic covariates. Model 2 controls for the demographic and lifestyle covariates. Model 3 controls for the demographic, lifestyle, and dietary covariates.