The first 'crude' model included age (continuous) and survey (S1, S2 or S3), followed by the second 'lifestyle/clinical' model which included additionally the lifestyle variables regular smoking (yes or no), physical inactivity (yes or no), and obesity (yes or no) as well as the clinical variables actual hypertension (yes or no) and dyslipidemia (yes or no).
"In the regular season, yes," Brodeur said.
Authors' response: This is a regular (and, yes, very detailed) research paper and as such most of it is not addressed to non-specialists (that is, non-microbiologists).
We further included the frequency of involvement in eight leisure activities, and a dummy variable of whether the participant often does regular exercise (yes versus no).
Second, we adjusted for age (continuous variable), BMI (continuous variable), smoking (current, former, or never), LDL cholesterol (continuous variable), and regular exercise (yes or no).
The following health-risk behaviours were measured at baseline using the questionnaire: regular smoking (yes vs. no), binge drinking (excessive drinking leading intoxication twice or more per month vs. less than twice per month) [ 27], and physical activity.
An additional item indicating whether the child used prescription medications other than vitamins on a regular basis (yes, no) was also included as a measure of child health problems.
Information collected included sex, race (non-Hispanic white vs. other), height, weight, household income (≤ $30,000 vs. > $30,000), education (< 12 years, high school diploma or GED, some college, bachelor degree or higher), smoking status (ever vs. never) and regular exercise (yes vs. no).
Lastly, health and behavioral factors were also examined: self-rated health (good-excellent, poor-fair), chronic conditions (having cardiac disease, hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or arthritis) (none, 1 or more), having a regular medical doctor (yes, no), physical activity (active, inactive), and current smoking status (yes, no).
