Determinants of Plasma Retinol and Beta-Carotene Levels

Background

Observational studies have suggested that low dietary intake
or low plasma concentrations of retinol, beta-carotene, or 
other carotenoids might be associated with increased risk of 
developing certain types of cancer.  However, relatively few 
studies have investigated the determinants of plasma 
concentrations of these micronutrients.

We designed a cross-sectional study to investigate the 
relationship between personal characteristics and dietary
factors, and plasma concentrations of retinol, beta-carotene 
and other carotenoids. Study subjects (N = 315) were patients
who had an elective surgical procedure during a three-year 
period to biopsy or remove a lesion of the lung, colon, 
breast, skin, ovary or uterus that was found to be non-cancerous. 
We display the data for only two of the analytes.


Variable Names in order from left to right:

AGE      Age (years)
SEX      Sex (1=Male, 2=Female).
SMOKSTAT Smoking status (1=Never, 2=Former, 3=Current Smoker)
QUETELET Quetelet (weight/(height^2))
VITUSE   Vitamin Use(1=Yes/fairly often 2=Yes/not often 3=No)
CALORIES Number of calories consumed per day.
FAT      Grams of fat consumed per day.
FIBER    Grams of fiber consumed per day.
ALCOHOL  Number of alcoholic drinks consumed per week.
CHOL     Cholesterol consumed (mg per day).
B_DIET   Dietary beta-carotene consumed (mcg per day).
RET_DIET Dietary retinol consumed (mcg per day)
B_PLAS   Plasma beta-carotene (ng/ml)
RET_PLAS Plasma Retinol (ng/ml)