Table 3. Baseline characteristics of participants according to extreme quintiles of the two major dietary patterns in the SUN project.

	Western dietary pattern			Mediterranean dietary pattern
	Q1	Q5	p value	Q1	Q5	p value
	(n = 2225)	(n = 2225)		(n = 2225)	(n = 2225)
Sex (% men)	32	60	<0.001*	53	32	<0.001*
Age at baseline (years), mean (SD)	42 (12)	38 (11)	<0.001†	37 (11)	34 (10)	<0.001†
BMI (kg/m2), mean (SD)	24 (3)	23 (3)	0.320†	23 (3)	24 (3)	0.812†
Smoking
Ex smoker (%)	39	23	<0.001*	27	34	<0.001*
Current smoker (%)	19	25	<0.001*	25	20	<0.001*
Leisure time physical activity (Mets-h/week), mean (SD)	22 (23)	21 (23)	<0.001†	17 (19)	24 (26)	<0.001†
Total energy intake (Kcal/d), mean (SD)	1886 (569)	2948 (469)	<0.001†	1982 (616)	2737 (513)	<0.001†
History of diseases (%)
Diabetes	3	1	<0.001*	1	2	<0.001*
Hypertension	10	5	<0.001*	6	6	<0.001*
Coronary Heart Disease	6	4	<0.001*	3	9	<0.001*
Dyslipidaemia	27	12	<0.001*	16	22	<0.001*

Continuous variables are expressed as the mean and (standard deviation). Categorical variables are expressed as percentages.

^*p value from x² test.

^†p value from Student t test.