Statistical analysis
Continuous variables which followed a normal distribution pattern were
presented as mean ± SD, and non-normal variables were reported as median
(interquartile range (IQR)). Categorical variables were reported as
numbers and percentages. To compare the categorical variables,
Chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test was performed. For normally and
non-normally distributed data, paired T-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank
test were performed, respectively. A two-sided p-value<0.05
was considered statistically significant. The statistical analysis was
conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 26 (IBM Corp.,
Armonk, N.Y., USA).