The upper respiratory tract microbiota of healthy adults is affected by Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage, smoking habits, and contact with children

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the study population stratified by the presence/absence of pneumococci

Characteristics	Carriers N = 12	Noncarriers N = 47	P-value^a
Mean age ± standard deviation (years)	36.3 ± 5.7	37.5 ± 7.1	0.142^b
Gender male, n (%)	5 (41.7)	22 (46.8)	1.000
Living with children \(\le\) 18 years old, n (%)	10 (83.3)	18 (38.3)	0.014
Smoker, n (%)	5 (41.7)	20 (42.6)	1.000
Chronic diseases, n (%)	6 (50.0)	12 (25.5)	0.158
Seasonal flu vaccination, n (%)	4 (33.4)	2 (7.4)	0.015
Vaccination with PCV13, n (%)	4 (33.4)	6 (12.8)	0.189
Antibiotic consumption 6 months before enrollment, n (%)	3 (25)	8 (17)	0.679

Characteristics with a P-value less than 0.05 are highlighted in bold
^aIndividual characteristics (with the exception of mean age) were compared with Pearson’s chi-squared test
^bMean age between groups was compared with Student’s t-test

ISSN: 2049-2618