Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of ATTICA study participants (n 2020), according to the level of adherence to the Mediterranean and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diets*
| Overall | Low adherence to the Mediterranean diet (≤27·0) | High adherence to the Mediterranean diet (>27·0) | P | Low adherence to the DASH diet (≤27·0) | High adherence to the DASH diet (>27·0) | P | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | |||
| Age (years) | <0·0001a | <0·008a | ||||||||||
| Mean | 45·2 | 51·0 | 36·2 | 44·3 | 46·0 | |||||||
| sd | 14·0 | 12·6 | 10·7 | 14·6 | 13·2 | |||||||
| Gender (men) | 1006 | 49·8 | 854 | 69·8 | 152 | 19·1 | <0·0001b | 500 | 51·8 | 506 | 48·0 | <0·084b |
| Educational status | <0·0001c | 0·793c | ||||||||||
| Low | 1237 | 62·4 | 807 | 67·0 | 430 | 55·4 | 595 | 62·7 | 642 | 62·2 | ||
| Moderate | 714 | 36·0 | 383 | 31·8 | 331 | 42·7 | 338 | 35·6 | 376 | 36·4 | ||
| High | 30 | 1·5 | 15 | 1·2 | 15 | 1·9 | 16 | 1·7 | 14 | 1·4 | ||
| Average daily energetic intake (kJ) | 0·379d | 0·985d | ||||||||||
| Mean | 9949 | 10 058 | 9799 | 9949 | 9954 | |||||||
| sd | 3975 | 3975 | 3983 | 4125 | 3845 | |||||||
| Physically active | 825 | 40·8 | 493 | 40·3 | 332 | 41·7 | 0·548b | 375 | 38·9 | 450 | 42·7 | 0·954b |
| BMI (kg/m2) | <0·0001a | <0·051a | ||||||||||
| Mean | 26·3 | 28·4 | 23·0 | 26·1 | 26·5 | |||||||
| sd | 4·5 | 4·1 | 2·7 | 4·4 | 4·6 | |||||||
| Weight category | <0·0001c | 0·116c | ||||||||||
| Normal/underweight | 842 | 41·7 | 231 | 18·9 | 611 | 77·0 | 423 | 44·0 | 419 | 39·7 | ||
| Overweight | 811 | 40·2 | 637 | 52·1 | 174 | 21·9 | 378 | 39·3 | 433 | 41·9 | ||
| Obese | 364 | 18·0 | 355 | 29·0 | 9 | 1·1 | 161 | 16·7 | 203 | 19·2 | ||
| Abnormal waist-to-hip ratio | 777 | 40·5 | 867 | 70·9 | 217 | 27·3 | <0·0001b | 505 | 52·5 | 579 | 54·9 | 0·283b |
| Current smokers | 857 | 42·6 | 528 | 43·3 | 329 | 41·4 | 0·414b | 409 | 42·5 | 448 | 42·6 | 0·975b |
| Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) | <0·0001d | 0·913d | ||||||||||
| Mean | 123·0 | 129·5 | 113·0 | 123·0 | 123·0 | |||||||
| sd | 18·4 | 17·7 | 14·4 | 18·2 | 18·5 | |||||||
| Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) | 0·038d | 0·166d | ||||||||||
| Mean | 79·0 | 82·7 | 73·3 | 78·6 | 79·4 | |||||||
| sd | 11·6 | 11·0 | 10·1 | 11·2 | 11·9 | |||||||
| Blood glucose (mg/dl) | <0·0001d | 0·857d | ||||||||||
| Mean | 93·3 | 97·2 | 87·2 | 93·2 | 93·4 | |||||||
| sd | 24·1 | 27·2 | 16·8 | 24·2 | 24·1 | |||||||
| Hypercholesterolaemia | 860 | 42·6 | 649 | 53·1 | 211 | 26·6 | <0·0001b | 391 | 40·6 | 469 | 44·5 | 0·084b |
| Hypertension | 598 | 31·5 | 516 | 44·6 | 82 | 11·1 | <0·0001b | 273 | 29·9 | 325 | 33·0 | 0·147b |
| Diabetes | 145 | 7·2 | 134 | 11·0 | 11 | 1·4 | <0·0001b | 71 | 7·4 | 74 | 7·0 | 0·765b |
| Metabolic syndrome | 399 | 19·8 | 365 | 29·8 | 34 | 4·3 | <0·0001b | 178 | 18·4 | 221 | 20·9 | 0·158b |
*
Continuous variables are presented as mean ± sd and categorical variables as absolute and relative frequencies (n and %).
P-values referring to differences between CVD events and CVD-free events during the 10-year follow-up, derived using the following: aStudent’s t test for normally distributed continuous variables, b χ 2 test for categorical variables, cLikelihood-ratio test for ordinal categorical variables and dMann–Whitney test for non-normally distributed continuous variables.