Statistical analyses
Software (SPSS, Version 26.0 for Windows, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) was used for the univariate, bivariate, and stratified analyses of the data. Qualitative variables were analyzed by constructing contingency tables with Pearson × 2 test. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) (with LSD as a post hoc test) and kruskal wallis test (KW) were used for multiple comparisons of quantitative variables for more than two groups. The Student t test and Mann–Whitney U test (as a post hoc test after KW analysis) were applied for the comparison of quantitative variables after establishing their normal distribution by means of the Shapiro–Wilk test and Levene test for equality of variance. Correlations among variables were studied by using the spearman coefficient for the association between variables. ROC (receiver operating characteristics) curve was performed to predict cutoff points for different variables. Differences were considered significant at 