Statistical analyses were performed using non-parametric tests whenever possible (signed-rank tests, Kruskal-Wallis test, Friedman test and Spearman’s correlation) because of the non-normal distribution of most studied variables. Linear mixed effect model was used for repeated measures data where the subject was a random effect, and a random intercept was utilized. A two-tailed P-value < 0.05 was considered significant, with multiple comparisons corrected using the Bonferroni correction. All statistical analyses were performed using Python 3.
