Table 2.

Relationship between dietary iron intake trajectory groups and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in parsimonious and fully-adjusted models

Iron intake trajectory group	Mean iron intake, (mg/day)	No. of cases/No. of total participants	Parsimonious model		Fully-adjusted model
			Hazard ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Hazard ratio (95% CI)	P-value
1	10.9	178/12,976	Ref	-	Ref	-
2	12.3	147/13,062	0.79 (0.63, 0.99)	0.04	0.81 (0.65, 1.02)	0.07
3	14.1	183/19,814	0.64 (0.52, 0.80)	< 0.01	0.62 (0.49, 0.79)	< 0.01
4	17.6	169/15,263	0.70 (0.55, 0.89)	< 0.01	0.70 (0.54, 0.91)	< 0.01

Parsimonious model: adjusted for age, sex, BMI, and total energy

Fully-adjusted model: further adjusted for ethnicity, residence area, smoking status, alcohol drinking status, income, Townsend deprivation index, physical activity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, history of cardiovascular disease, glycated haemoglobin, and dietary intake of carbohydrates, protein, magnesium, fiber, and saturated fat