2.7. Statistical Analyses
Results were analyzed using SPSS statistics (IBM, version 20, New York, NY, USA). Univariate analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to examine whether any significant group differences existed at baseline for the basic demographic and health variables displayed in Table 1. Univariate ANCOVAs were also used to examine the effects of treatment on all outcomes variables at week 16. Significant main effects of treatment were further examined using simple planned contrasts, applying Bonferroni corrections to each contrast in order to adjust for comparisons across the treatment groups. Given that males and females may respond differently to LC n-3 PUFA supplementation across different clinical outcomes, we examined whether gender predicted the incorporation of LC n-3 PUFA and LC n-6 PUFA into red blood cells. For these analyses, gender was entered as a fixed factor and the respective fatty acid variable at endpoint as the dependent variable in ANOVA. All analyses were adjusted for the respective scores at baseline and all results were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05.