Table 1.
Baseline Characteristics According to Body Mass Index and Vigorous Physical Activity Categories in the Physicians’ Health Study*
| Body-mass index categories | Vigorous physical activity categories | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | Lean (n=12133) | Overweight (n=8032) | Obese (n=929) | p-value | Inactive (n=2841) | Active (n=18253) | p-value |
| Age (years) | 52.9 ± 9.7 | 53.6 ± 9.1 | 52.8 ± 8.8 | <0.001 | 55.7 ± 10.0 | 52.7 ± 9.3 | <0.0001 |
| Body mass index (kg/m2) | 23.0 ± 1.3 | 26.6 ± 1.3 | 32.4 ± 2.8 | <0.0001 | 25.2 ± 3.2 | 24.7 ± 2.7 | <0.0001 |
| Lean (%) | 100 | – | – | 51.6 | 58.4 | ||
| Overweight (%) | – | 100 | – | 42.1 | 37.4 | ||
| Obese (%) | – | – | 100 | 6.3 | 4.1 | ||
| Vigorous physical activity (%) | <0.0001 | ||||||
| Inactive (rarely/never) | 12.1 | 14.9 | 19.3 | 100 | – | ||
| Low active (1-3/month) | 12.6 | 16.1 | 18.3 | – | 16.4 | ||
| Medium active (1-4/week) | 56.0 | 56.3 | 53.0 | – | 64.7 | ||
| High active (5-7/week) | 19.3 | 12.7 | 9.5 | – | 18.9 | ||
| Parental history of myocardial infarction | 9.0 | 9.6 | 10.5 | 0.12 | 8.2 | 9.4 | 0.025 |
| Cigarette smokers (%) | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | |||||
| No | 51.7 | 47.1 | 42.8 | 45.1 | 50.2 | ||
| Past | 38.1 | 41.0 | 43.5 | 39.7 | 39.4 | ||
| Current | 10.2 | 11.9 | 13.7 | 15.1 | 10.4 | ||
| Alcohol consumption (%) | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | |||||
| Rarely | 14.4 | 15.2 | 19.5 | 19.8 | 14.1 | ||
| Monthly | 10.7 | 11.2 | 15.8 | 14.1 | 10.7 | ||
| Weekly | 49.1 | 49.5 | 46.6 | 40.1 | 50.5 | ||
| Daily | 25.8 | 24.1 | 18.1 | 26.1 | 24.6 | ||
| History of hypertension (%) | 18.9 | 28.8 | 42.4 | <0.0001 | 29.8 | 22.8 | <0.0001 |
| Blood pressure (mm Hg) | |||||||
| Systolic | 124.3 ± 11.4 | 128.1 ± 11.7 | 132.4 ± 12.8 | <0.0001 | 127.8 ± 12.5 | 125.8 ± 11.7 | <0.0001 |
| Diastolic | 77.7 ± 7.4 | 80.0 ± 7.3 | 82.7 ± 7.9 | <0.0001 | 79.7 ± 7.6 | 78.7 ± 7.5 | <0.0001 |
| History of diabetes mellitus (%) | 2.2 | 3.2 | 6.7 | <0.0001 | 5.8 | 2.3 | <0.0001 |
| History of hypercholesterolemia (%) | |||||||
| Present | 9.8 | 11.6 | 10.9 | <0.001 | 11.5 | 10.4 | 0.066 |
| Missing | 11.4 | 12.2 | 14.7 | 11.0 | 12.0 | ||
| Study medications | |||||||
| Aspirin (%) | 50.3 | 49.5 | 49.7 | 0.52 | 49.5 | 50.0 | 0.57 |
| Beta-carotene | 49.9 | 50.0 | 51.9 | 0.50 | 49.2 | 50.2 | 0.39 |
*
Body mass index is weight in kilograms (kg) divided by the square of the height in meters (m2). The body mass index was <25 kg/m2 in lean participants, 25 to 29.9 kg/m2 overweight participants, and ≥30 kg/m2 in obese participants. Data on blood pressure were available for 10755 participants in the lean group, 7124 participants in the overweight group, 818 participants in the obese group, 2457 participants in the inactive group, and 16240 participants in the active group. Plus – minus values are means ± standard deviation.