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. 2024 Feb 29;22:89. doi: 10.1186/s12916-024-03280-8

Table 1.

Baseline characteristics according to according to the lowest, middle and highest categories of dairy consumption among women aged ≥ 60y in the Nurses’ Health Study

Milk Yogurt Cheese
 < 1/wk 2 to 4 /wk  ≥ 2/d Never 1/wk  ≥ 5/wk  < 1/wk 2 to 4 /wk  ≥ 1/d
Participants, n 11,584 24,304 8007 24,495 15,387 1253 4922 43,517 10,223
Mean age, y 62.5 (2.3) 62.4 (2.2) 63.1 (2.5) 63.0 (2.5) 62.3 (2.1) 62.6 (2.3) 62.8 (2.4) 62.5 (2.2) 62.9 (2.5)
BMI, kg/m2 25.2 (4.8) 25.7 (4.7) 25.7 (4.8) 25.6 (4.8) 25.7 (4.6) 24.8 (4.5) 25.1 (4.6) 25.6 (4.7) 26.1 (5.0)
Discretionary physical activity, METs-h/wk 17.7 (23.4) 18.4 (22.9) 20.4 (23.7) 16.7 (21.5) 20.1 (22.7) 26.8 (30.3) 16.8 (23.8) 18.5 (22.3) 21.1 (24.9)
Current smoker, % 17 12 12 20 8 7 15 12 12
Education graduate school, % 2 3 3 2 3 4 2 3 3
Census tract income above 100,000/y, % 22 23 21 18 26 25 21 23 22
Medication usea
 Aspirin, % 41 46 46 43 47 44 40 46 46
 Postmenopausal hormone therapy, % 37 38 37 34 39 39 35 38 38
 Diuretics, % 10 10 9 9 11 6 8 10 11
 β-Blockers, % 12 13 13 12 14 11 13 13 12
 Calcium channel blockers, % 9 10 10 10 9 7 9 10 10
 ACE inhibitors, % 9 10 10 9 10 9 9 10 10
 Other blood pressure medication, % 8 9 9 9 9 7 9 9 9
 Lipid lowering medication, %, % 13 16 14 13 17 11 18 17 12
 Insulin, % 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2
 Oral hypoglycemic drugs, % 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3
Dietary intake
 Milk, servings/d 0.05 (0.04) 0.48 (0.12) 2.50 (0.54) 0.77 (0.77) 0.91 (0.71) 1.02 (0.84) 0.73 (0.78) 0.85 (0.72) 0.89 (0.76)
 Low-fat milk, servings/d 0.03 (0.04) 0.39 (0.18) 2.15 (0.76) 0.59 (0.71) 0.80 (0.68) 0.89 (0.79) 0.59 (0.71) 0.72 (0.68) 0.76 (0.72)
 Whole milk, servings/d 0.01 (0.03) 0.09 (0.15) 0.35 (0.68) 0.18 (0.39) 0.11 (0.25) 0.13 (0.36) 0.14 (0.34) 0.13 (0.30) 0.14 (0.31)
 Yogurt, servings/d 0.09 (0.17) 0.12 (0.17) 0.14 (0.21) 0.00 (0.00) 0.20 (0.04) 0.96 (0.34) 0.07 (0.16) 0.12 (0.17) 0.16 (0.22)
 Plain yogurt, servings/d 0.07 (0.20) 0.09 (0.22) 0.11 (0.26) 0.00 (0.00) 0.15 (0.21) 0.60 (0.76) 0.06 (0.20) 0.10 (0.21) 0.13 (0.26)
 Sweetened yogurt, servings/d 0.04 (0.14) 0.06 (0.14) 0.06 (0.16) 0.00 (0.00) 0.09 (0.16) 0.31 (0.54) 0.04 (0.16) 0.06 (0.15) 0.07 (0.17)
 Cheese, servings/d 0.55 (0.45) 0.58 (0.38) 0.61 (0.42) 0.54 (0.43) 0.63 (0.38) 0.75 (0.51) 0.08 (0.04) 0.48 (0.12) 1.37 (0.47)
 Low-fat cheese, servings/d 0.13 (0.18) 0.16 (0.18) 0.20 (0.23) 0.13 (0.19) 0.20 (0.18) 0.30 (0.32) 0.02 (0.02) 0.14 (0.11) 0.38 (0.35)
 High-fat cheese, servings/d 0.43 (0.39) 0.42 (0.32) 0.41 (0.33) 0.41 (0.36) 0.42 (0.31) 0.44 (0.37) 0.06 (0.03) 0.35 (0.13) 0.99 (0.50)
 Energy intake, kcal/d 1520 (424) 1651 (407) 1978 (413) 1655 (445) 1756 (419) 1958 (457) 1445 (416) 1682 (398) 1983 (439)
 Alcohol intake, g/d 7.9 (11.4) 6.2 (8.9) 4.5 (7.8) 6.7 (10.6) 5.5 (7.7) 5.3 (7.4) 4.2 (8.4) 5.9 (8.8) 7.6 (10.21)
 AHEI score 51.8 (10.0) 52.6 (9.5) 50.9 (9.4) 48.8 (9.4) 54.4 (9.0) 58.1 (9.4) 51.5 (10.4) 52.2 (9.4) 52.6 (9.5)
Number of frailty criteria, %
 0 72 71 71 72 70 77 70 71 71
 1 22 23 23 22 23 18 23 23 23
 2 6 6 6 6 6 5 6 7 6

BMI body mass index, METs metabolic equivalent tasks, ACE angiotensin converting enzyme, AHEI Alternate Healthy Eating Index. Values are means (SD) unless otherwise indicated. Data, except age, were directly standardized to the age distribution of the entire cohort

a1 or more times per week