Table 2.
Characteristics of the Study Population by Tertiles of DP Score 2
| No. (%) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total (N=2148) | Lowest Tertilea (n=749) | Middle Tertile (n=717) | Highest Tertile (n=682) | P Valueb | |
| Cut points of DP score 2 | −3.71 to −0.39 | −0.39 to 0.36 | 0.37 to 16.3 | ||
| Age at entry, y, mean (SD) | 77.2 (6.6) | 77.4 (6.7) | 77.6 (6.6) | 76.5 (6.3) | .02 |
| Female | 1457 (68) | 485 (65) | 497 (69) | 475 (70) | .05 |
| Education, y, mean (SD) | 10.0 (4.8) | 9.5 (4.7) | 9.8 (4.6) | 10.8 (4.8) | <.001 |
| Ethnicity | |||||
| White | 596 (28) | 200 (27) | 188 (26) | 208 (31) | .02 |
| Black | 693 (32) | 218 (29) | 252 (35) | 223 (33) | |
| Hispanic | 823 (38) | 320 (43) | 266 (37) | 237 (35) | |
| Other | 36 (2) | 11 (2) | 11 (2) | 14 (2) | |
| Presence of APOE ε4 allele | 508 (27) | 193 (29) | 174 (28) | 141 (25) | .07 |
| Current smoker | 268 (13) | 122 (16) | 79 (11) | 67 (10) | <.001 |
| Comorbidity index, mean (SD) | 1.9 (1.4) | 1.83 (1.4) | 1.99 (1.4) | 1.96 (1.5) | .09 |
| Caloric intake, kcal/d, mean (SD) | 1426 (515) | 1495 (523) | 1320 (492) | 1460 (512) | .14 |
| BMI, mean (SD) | 27.4 (5.5) | 27.1 (5.3) | 27.5 (5.8) | 27.5 (5.4) | .23 |
| Moderate alcohol drinking | 693 (32) | 244 (33) | 209 (29) | 240 (35) | .35 |
| Incident AD cases | 253 (12) | 117 (16) | 86 (12) | 50 (7) | <.001 |
Abbreviations: AD, Alzheimer disease; APOE, apolipoprotein E; BMI, body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared); DP, dietary pattern.
a
The tertiles were defined based on the distribution of the DP score 2 among participants who remained without dementia during the follow-up.
b
P values for trend from logistic regression for binary variables and from linear regression models for continuous variables, with tertiles of the DP score entering the models as an ordinal variable. P value for the categorical variable (ie, ethnicity) was from χ2 test.