Table 1.

Baseline Characteristics of the Participants in the Three Cohorts, According to Intake of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages.^*

Characteristic	Servings of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages				P Value†
	<1 per Month	1–4 per Month	2–6 per Week	≥1 per Day
NHS cohort
Participants — no.	2843	1776	1496	819
Age — yr	48.7±6.5	48.0±6.7	46.9±6.9	45.8±6.8	<0.001
BMI‡	24.5±4.6	24.5±4.7	24.9±4.8	25.2±5.7	<0.001
Alcohol consumption — g/day	7.7±11.1	5.8±9.9	5.5±8.9	5.3±9.7	<0.001
Current smoking — no. (%)	722 (25.4)	361 (20.3)	316 (21.1)	248 (30.3)	0.58
Physical activity — MET-hr/wk§	15.5±18.3	13.4±17.8	13.1±16.2	12.6±17.0	<0.001
Time spent watching television — hr/wk	13.4±12.0	13.4±11.5	13.5±11.2	13.6±12.0	0.67
Total energy intake — kcal/day	1460±457	1580±479	1690±475	1840±524	<0.001
Alternative Healthy Eating Index score¶	30.7±9.1	28.6±8.7	28.2±8.4	27.5±8.0	<0.001
Artificially sweetened beverages — servings/day	0.61±0.99	0.32±0.71	0.26±0.55	0.35±0.74	<0.001
Genetic-predisposition score||	29.3±4.0	29.1±4.0	29.0±4.0	29.1±4.0	0.15
HPFS cohort
Participants — no.	1627	1058	1338	400
Age — yr	56.4±8.3	55.4±8.6	53.0±8.6	51.4±8.9	<0.001
BMI‡	25.7±3.4	25.7±3.3	25.9±3.3	26.0±3.3	0.07
Alcohol consumption — g/day	13.0±16.2	11.4±14.7	11.3±14.9	10.7±18.3	0.02
Current smoking — no. (%)	132 (8.1)	97 (9.2)	124 (9.3)	51 (12.8)	0.02
Physical activity — MET-hr/wk§	20.6±28.6	19.2±23.8	18.8±27.0	19.7±27.7	0.62
Time spent watching television — hr/wk	12.0±9.0	11.4±8.5	11.3±8.4	13.0±9.0	0.03
Total energy intake — kcal/day	1853±566	1967±570	2172±600	2458±633	<0.001
Alternative Healthy Eating Index score¶	46.2±11.7	44.9±10.7	43.4±10.1	41.2±10.6	<0.001
Artificially sweetened beverages — servings/day	0.67±1.11	0.40±0.78	0.35±0.67	0.30±0.71	<0.001
Genetic-predisposition score||	29.3±4.0	29.0±4.0	29.2±4.0	29.0±4.0	0.57
WGHS cohort
Participants — no.	9759	4780	5531	1670
Age — yr	54.9±7.0	55.1±7.4	54.3±7.1	52.9±6.2	<0.001
BMI‡	25.8±4.8	25.7±4.7	25.7±4.9	26.1±5.4	0.03
Alcohol consumption — g/day	5.1±9.5	4.0±7.8	3.6±7.1	3.2±7.5	<0.001
Current smoking — no. (%)	985 (10.1)	508 (10.6)	678 (12.3)	326 (19.5)	<0.001
Physical activity — MET-hr/wk§	16.2±19.4	14.4±17.5	13.5±17.3	12.1±17.1	<0.001
Total energy intake — kcal/day	1613±488	1737±505	1847±527	2050±559	<0.001
Artificially sweetened beverages — servings/day	0.97±1.28	0.68±1.02	0.55±0.99	0.41±1.03	<0.001
Genetic-predisposition score||	29.3±3.8	29.0±3.7	28.9±3.7	28.6±3.8	0.001

^*Plus–minus values are means ±SD. Baseline data were from 6934 women in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS, 1980), 4423 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS, 1986), and 21,740 women in the Women’s Genome Health Study (WGHS, 1992). Physical activity was assessed in 1986 for the NHS cohort. Television watching was assessed in 1992 for the NHS cohort and in 1988 for the HPFS cohort.

^†P values are for the trend across the four categories of intake of sugar-sweetened beverages.

^‡The body-mass index (BMI) is the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters.

^§MET denotes metabolic equivalents.

^¶Scores on the Alternative Healthy Eating Index range from 2.5 to 87.5, with higher scores indicating a healthier diet.²⁷

^||The genetic-predisposition score ranges from 0 to 64, with higher scores indicating a higher genetic predisposition to obesity.