Associations between asthma, betel chewing, plasma markers and respiratory function in male participants (n = 147).

Arecoline, arecaidine, IgE, hs-CRP, leptin, TGF-β1 and eotaxin-1 levels were logarithmically transformed before statistical testing to meet the assumption of a normal distribution.aLeast significant difference (LSD) multiple comparisons were performed to compare plasma markers and pulmonary function between current and non-current betel chewing in males with asthma and controls, respectively.bGeneral linear regression was used to assess the associations between plasma markers and the four groups of male cases and controls with and without betel chewing by adjusting for age, BMI and smoking.