Skip to main content
. 2009 Apr 18;39(1):197–209. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyp191

Table 5.

Baseline characteristicsa across quintiles of the Unhealthy Eating Index, ACLS 1987–99

Quintiles of the Unhealthy Eating Indexb
Q1 (Healthiest) Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (Least Healthy)
General characteristics
 N 2724 2724 2725 2724 2724
 Age (years) 50.0 (10.7) 48.1 (10.0) 47.3 (10.2) 45.2 (9.6) 43.7 (9.3)
 Men (%) 60.7 65.5 74.6 83.6 94.1
 Women (%) 39.3 34.5 25.4 16.4 5.9
Physical activity (%)
 Inactive 15.2 19.9 25.8 29.0 39.5
 Moderately active 49.7 51.6 50.0 49.5 44.7
 Highly active 35.1 28.5 24.2 21.5 15.8
Cardiorespiratory fitness (%)
 Low 4.6 5.4 7.6 10.6 16.8
 Moderate 21.6 27.0 30.6 34.5 40.3
 High 73.8 67.6 61.8 54.9 42.9
Smoking status (%)
 Never smoker 60.1 57.9 56.0 55.3 50.3
 Former smoker 35.0 24.7 34.1 31.4 31.1
 Current smoker 5.0 7.4 9.9 13.4 18.6
Alcohol intake (%)
 Light or non-drinker   (less than 5 drinks/week) 92.9 90.3 87.8 83.3 79.6
 Heavy drinker (5 drinks or more/week) 7.1 9.7 12.2 16.7 20.5
Energy intake
 Absolute (kcal/day) 1834 (576) 1922 (558) 2064 (553) 2265 (585) 2668 (894)
 Relative to weight (kcal/kg/day) 11.9 (4.2) 11.9 (3.8) 12.3 (3.9) 12.8 (3.9) 14.1 (5.5)
Clinical variables
 BMI (kg/m2) 24.3 (3.9) 24.9 (3.6) 25.5 (3.9) 26.3 (4.3) 27.6 (4.5)
 Mean arterial pressure (mm Hg) 92 (11) 93 (10) 93 (10) 94 (10) 96 (10)
 Total cholesterol (mg/dl) 203.6 (39.2) 206.2 (40.7) 207.6 (40.0) 208.3 (40.8) 211.3 (40.5)
 HDL-cholesterol (mg/dl) 55.9 (16.7) 54.0 (16.3) 52.3 (15.6) 49.5 (14.4) 46.3 (13.0)
 Triglycerides (mg/dl) 101.2 (65.1) 113.0 (86.2) 119.8 (78.6) 133.1 (97.0) 149.2 (112.6)
 Fasting glucose (mg/dl) 97.1 (14.2) 98.5 (16.5) 98.8 (14.4) 100.1 (19.8) 101.6 (19.3)
 Uric acid (mg/dl) 5.0 (1.4) 5.2 (1.4) 5.5 (1.4) 5.8 (1.4) 6.1 (1.4)
 White blood cell count (cells/mm3) 5641 (1411) 5764 (1418) 5906 (1427) 5964 (1394) 6239 (1505)

aData presented as mean (SD) for continuous variables or prevalence for categorical variables.

bP < 0.05 between quintiles for all variables.