2.4. Statistical Analysis
non-obese, TNF-α
OBESE
As previously reported [To examine if the effect of treatment was different between sexes (male, female), a 3-way interaction of treatment × time × sex was applied. Among all markers, the 3-way interaction was significant for TNF-α and TAS which were included in the stratified analysis. Similarly, to examine if the effect of treatment was different between obese (BMI ≥ 30) and non-obese (BMI < 30) at baseline, a dichotomous BMI variable was created and added into the original model for a 3-way interaction of treatment x time x BMI. The 3-way interaction was significant for haptoglobin which was included in the BMI-stratified analysis.Canonical correlation analysis was used to explore the inter-relationship between blood lipids and inflammatory and oxidation markers. Partial correlation coefficients were first computed between the lipid markers, the inflammatory markers, and between the lipid and inflammatory markers and adjusted for age and sex to exclude associations that were highly correlated. Canonical variates 1 and 2 were then created for lipids and the inflammatory markers and the 1st and 2nd canonical correlations between the two were computed.Unless stated otherwise, significance tests were 2-sided and were performed at a 5% level of significance. All statistical analyses were conducted with the use of SAS software (version 9.4: SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA) and R version 3.6.3.