Obesity is associated with decreased risk of microscopic colitis in women

Table 1 Characteristics of the study population

	Cases, n = 110		Controls, n = 252
	n	Percent	n	Percent
Agea
mean	63.2	12.7	54.5	11.8
Raceb
White	102	96.2	186	85.7
Non-White	4	3.8	31	14.3
Sexa
Female	94	86.2	176	69.8
Male	15	13.8	76	30.2
Marital status
Married	75	70.8	146	66.7
Not married	31	29.3	73	33.3
Educationa
Less than college	36	34.0	122	55.7
College or postgrad	70	66.0	97	44.3
Cigarette smokingc
Never smoker	48	45.3	107	48.9
Former smoker	46	43.4	66	30.1
Current smoker	12	11.3	46	21.0
Irritable bowel syndromeb
Yes	14	13.6	60	28.0
No	89	86.4	154	72.0

^aP < 0.001.

^bP < 0.005.

^cP < 0.05.