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.