Table 1.

 Baseline characteristics of participants in Physicians’ Health Study. Values are percentages of participants

Variables	<55 years (n=13 003)	55-64 years (n=5994)	≥65 years (n=3051)
Smoking status:
Former	35.3	44.5	47.2
Current	10.9	11.9	9.4
Daily alcohol use	20.6	28.5	36.1
Exercise to sweat 1-3 times or less monthly	26.2	29.1	31.5
Body mass index:
25-29 kg/m2	36.9	41.3	37.8
≥30 kg/m2	4.4	4.1	3.6
Diabetes	1.1	2.8	5.3
Hypertension	16.2	29.8	44.6
High cholesterol level	10.0	14.4	15.1