Measuring perceived effects of drinking an extract of basidiomycetes Agaricus blazei murill: a survey of Japanese consumers with cancer

Table 5 Perceived Effects Scale Scores by Characteristics of 782 Respondents

		Relief of Treatment Symptoms	test of association (p value)	Improve Functional Well-being	test of association (p value)
		(mean scores)
All Respondents		0.25		0.30
Percent reporting no net effect		26%		37%
Sex
Male		0.23	t	0.25	t
Female		0.27	(0.092)	0.36	(< 0.001)
Age group
20 – 49		0.30		0.42
50 – 59		0.27	r = -0.03	0.29	r = -0.08
60 – 69		0.23	(0.389)	0.30	(0.016)
70 and older		0.25		0.26
Cancer group
Lung, stomach, liver		0.23	F	0.28	F
Colon, breast, uterus, cervix		0.29	(0.060)	0.35	(0.004)
Prostate, other		0.21		0.15
Lung	No	0.27	t	0.32	t
	Yes	0.20	(0.032)	0.26	(0.190)
Stomach	No	0.25	t	0.29	t
	Yes	0.27	(0.379)	0.34	(0.245)
Liver	No	0.26	t	0.31	t
	Yes	0.18	(0.026)	0.23	(0.059)
Colon	No	0.24	t	0.29	t
	Yes	0.29	(0.074)	0.33	(0.295)
Breast	No	0.25	t	0.29	t
	Yes	0.26	(0.725)	0.36	(0.192)
Uterus	No	0.25	t	0.29	t
	Yes	0.39	(0.075)	0.50	(0.051)
Cervix	No	0.25	t	0.30	t
	Yes	0.26	(0.836)	0.42	(0.159)
Prostate	No	0.25	t	0.32	t
	Yes	0.21	(0.277)	0.14	(0.002)
History using sen-sei-ro
≤ 3 months		0.14*		0.22
3 – 6 months		0.24	r(s) = 0.07	0.30	r(s) = 0.04
6 – 12 months		0.25	(0.059)	0.29	(0.251)
> 12 months		0.27		0.32
Current treatment
No active treatment		0.24	F	0.31	F
Oral or radiation therapy		0.26	0.640	0.30	0.973
Intravenous chemotherapy		0.26		0.30

t: t-test.
F: F, analysis of variance.
r: Pearson correlation coefficient; r(s): Spearman correlation coefficient.
* Group mean is significantly (p < 0.05) lower than means for other groups, which are not significantly different from one another