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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Gut. 2009 Oct 14;59(6):794–799. doi: 10.1136/gut.2009.183707

Table 1.

Age and age-standardized baseline characteristics of the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up cohort*

Energy-adjusted Folate Intake, µg/day

Women Men
Characteristic* <200 200–299 300–399 ≥400 <200 200–299 300–399 ≥400
N=20,907 N=28,882 N=12,997 N=25,905 N=1,512 N=10,121 N=13,423 N=22,307
Total intakeψ
 Folate (µg/day) 159 246 341 677 173 258 347 682
 Vitamin B6 (mg/day) 1.59 2.05 2.76 5.15 3.29 3.73 4.80 13.6
 Vitamin B12 (mg/day) 5.55 6.45 7.78 15.1 7.89 8.79 9.78 16.4
 Alcohol (g/day) 6.7 6.4 6.0 6.3 13.4 13.0 11.4 10.5
 Methionine (mg/day) 1.74 1.86 1.95 1.93 2.03 2.13 2.20 2.21
 Calcium (mg/day) 574 710 797 796 577 743 858 987
 Beef, pork, or lamb as a main dish (servings/week) 3.1 2.6 2.3 2.3 2.4 2.1 1.8 1.5
Other characteristics*
Median age (yr) 46.6 46.8 46.8 46.6 54.4 54.4 54.4 54.4
Former or current smoker (%) 60 56 54 55 60 55 51 50
 Pack-yr 23.3 20.4 18.7 19.2 31.7 27.2 24.1 23.1
Regular aspirin user 31 32 32 35 26 27 28 32
Body mass index (kg/m2) 24.4 24.5 24.3 24.0 25.8 25.9 25.6 25.3
Physical activity, METS/wk (%) § 11.1 13.8 15.8 15.6 12.9 17.0 20.5 23.7
Post-menopausal (%) 44 44 44 44
 Never used hormones (%) 64 62 61 59
 Past use of hormones (%) 18 19 19 19
 Current use of hormones (%) 18 19 20 22
Current multivitamin use (%) 8 13 24 84 12 15 23 67
Prior lower endoscopy (%) 2 2 2 2 22 24 26 27

Colorectal cancer in a parent or sibling (%) 8 8 7 8 9 8 8 9
*

Dietary intake and other characteristics at baseline questionnaire in 1980 (NHS) and 1986 (HPFS). Mean value, unless otherwise indicated. All values have been directly standardized according to the age distribution of the cohort.

Pack-years were calculated for former and current smokers only.

The body-mass index is the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters.

§

METS are metabolic equivalents. This was calculated based on the frequency of a range of physical activities (such as jogging) in 1986.

Hormones are defined as post-menopausal estrogen or estrogen/progesterone preparations. Percent of never, past, and current use was calculated among post-menopausal women only.

ψ

Nutrient values (folate, vitamin B6, B12, methionine, and calcium) represent the mean of energy-adjusted intake.