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Fig. 2 | Cardiovascular Diabetology

Fig. 2

From: Sexual dimorphism in selenium deficiency is associated with metabolic syndrome and prevalence of heart disease

Fig. 2

Simple slopes analysis of association between sex, selenium and signs of the metabolic syndrome. Johnson-Neyman plots illustrating the simple slope analyses, under which concentrations of selenium the interaction between sex and selenium with parameters of interest (BMI and diabetes mellitus) was significant (p < 0.05). The effect of female sex was compared with the effect of male sex on BMI/prevalence of diabetes, for each selenium concentration (i.e. ‘slope of sex’ indicates the direction and magnitude of the relative difference between both sexes). For the selenium intervals depicted by blue, sex was a significant effect modifier in the association with parameters of interest, and non-significant intervals are depicted in red. Figure 2A: Simple slopes analysis, testing selenium concentration significance intervals for sex and BMI (PREVEND). BMI was significantly lower in females as compared to males (hence the negative slope value) with further reduction in females at selenium concentrations above ~ 105 μg/L. In contrast, BMI was significantly higher in females as compared to males (hence the positive slope value) with further increase in females with selenium concentrations below ~ 60 μg/L. Figure 2B: Simple slopes analysis, testing selenium concentration significance intervals for sex and diabetes (PREVEND). The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was lower in females as compared to males with selenium concentrations above ~ 85 μg/L, but the association of female sex with higher prevalence did not remain significant for lower selenium levels. Figure 2C, D: Simple slopes analysis, testing selenium concentration significance intervals for sex and BMI as well as proportion of diabetes (BIOSTAT-CHF). With selenium levels above ~ 85 μg/L for BMI and ~ 100 μg/L for diabetes, significant effect modification was noted by females, as females had lower BMI and lower prevalent diabetes cases. Compared to females, males associated with an increased BMI and proportion of diabetes with higher selenium levels

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