Baseline characteristics of patients according to the quartiles of DNA methylation levels of the three genes
| DNA methylation level | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| miR-124a-3 | EMX1 | NKX6-1 | |||||||
| Characteristic | Q1 (lowest) | Q4 (highest) | p Value | Q1 (lowest) | Q4 (highest) | p Value | Q1 (lowest) | Q4 (highest) | p Value |
| DNA methylation level, median (IQR) | 14.4 (8.3–23.0) | 89.8 (88.1–91.9) | 11.0 (6.3–16.5) | 89.7 (87.4–91.9) | 37.5 (24.9–46.3) | 87.3 (84.5–90.4) | |||
| Mean age, years (SD) | 65.8 (8.5) | 68.6 (6.1) | 0.0007 | 65.4 (8.4) | 68.7 (6.1) | 0.0001 | 66.0 (8.2) | 68.2 (6.7) | 0.0247 |
| Male (%) | 77.4 | 84.1 | 0.3667 | 79.0 | 84.1 | 0.3552 | 80.0 | 82.1 | 0.9434 |
| H. pylori infection before enrolment (%) | 40.5 | 62.1 | 0.0004 | 39.5 | 54.4 | 0.0041 | 39.5 | 59.0 | 0.0008 |
| Serum pepsinogen index (%) | |||||||||
| (+) | 5.1 | 8.7 | 0.0010 | 6.2 | 7.2 | 0.0556 | 4.6 | 8.7 | 0.0072 |
| (2+) | 13.9 | 20.0 | 14.4 | 21.5 | 19.0 | 18.5 | |||
| (3+) | 24.1 | 33.3 | 21.0 | 27.7 | 18.5 | 30.3 | |||
| Past history of ER (%) | |||||||||
| Twice | 8.2 | 7.7 | 0.6443 | 9.2 | 10.3 | 0.5077 | 9.2 | 8.7 | 0.9836 |
| Three times | 1.0 | 2.1 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 2.1 | 1.5 | |||
| Pack-years of smoking (%) | |||||||||
| 1–39 | 40.3 | 40.7 | 0.0175 | 39.7 | 41.5 | 0.0050 | 39.1 | 38.7 | 0.6757 |
| ≥40 | 20.4 | 33.9 | 21.2 | 35.8 | 26.3 | ||||
| Green vegetable intake (%) | |||||||||
| Almost daily | 28.3 | 36.7 | 0.0070 | 28.7 | 33.5 | 0.0426 | 33.7 | 35.5 | 0.9862 |
p values <0.05 are shown in bold type.
*Based on the χ2 test or the Fisher's exact test for percentage difference and the analysis of variance test for mean age difference.
ER, endoscopic resection.