Statistical analysis
Continuous variables are expressed as median with 95% CI with non normal distribution or mean with 95% CI with the normal distribution. Dichotomous variables are expressed as frequency and percentage. Categorical or dichotomous variables were analyzed with Fisher’s exact test. The differences between before and after the intervention were analyzed with the Wilcoxon rank test, and the differences between the control and experimental groups at 0 days and 168 days were analyzed with the Mann–Whitney U test with non normal distribution and the student’s t test of independent samples with normal distribution. Logarithmic transformation was performed before such analysis; subsequently, tests of normality (Kolmogorov-Smirnof) and homoscedasticity (Levene’s test) were applied to determine the nature of the data. The analysis was enhanced to determine the interaction between time (0/168 days) and treatment (control/experimental) with analysis of variance for repeated measures, and a p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant of a tail. The data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows, version 24.00 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and GraphPad Prism software version 7 (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA, USA).