Effects of sepsis and its treatment measures on intestinal flora structure in critical care patients

Table 4 Statistical comparison of the α-diversity indexes of the intestinal flora in the three groups of individuals

α-diversity index	P value
	Control-median vs non-sepsis-median	Control-median vs sepsis-median	Non-sepsis-median vs sepsis-median
Ace	0.003	0.002	0.247
Chao	0.002	0.003	0.393
Shannon	0.023	0.035	0.795
Simpson	0.035	0.023	0.739
Observed OTUs	0.001	0.002	0.623

The Ace and Chao indexes reflect the microbial abundances in samples. Larger values indicate higher microbial abundance. The Shannon and Simpson indexes reflect the microbial diversity of samples. A larger Shannon index indicates a higher diversity, whereas a larger Simpson index indicates a lower diversity. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. OTUs: Operational taxonomic units.