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

Table 3

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

	Milk fat content typically consumed
Model	Milk abstainer; ()	Full-fat; ()	2%; ()	1%; ()	Nonfat; ()
Model 1						4.5	0.0061
Model 2						3.3	0.0232
Model 3						4.1	0.0093

The five levels of milk fat consumption were defined as follows: abstainer: participants who never consumed milk (, 14.0%); full-fat: adults who typically consumed whole or full-fat milk (, 35.9%); 2%: subjects who usually consumed 2% milk (, 28.3%); 1%: individuals who typically consumed 1% milk (, 8.7%); and nonfat: participants who typically consumed nonfat, skim, or 0.5% milk (, 13.2%). The number of subjects in each category does not take into account the sample weights assigned to each subject. However, the percentage (%) following sample size shows the proportion of subjects in the milk fat category with the NHANES sample weights applied. SE is the standard error of the mean. ^a,bMeans on the same row with the same superscript letter are not statistically different (). Model 1 compares telomere means, after adjusting for the demographic covariates. In Model 1, the mean difference in telomere length between milk abstainers and those who consumed 1% milk was . Model 2 compares telomere means, after controlling for the demographic covariates and the lifestyle covariates. In Model 2, the difference in telomere length between abstainers and those who consumed 1% milk was . Model 3 compares telomere means, after adjusting for the demographic, lifestyle, and dietary covariates.