. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jul 3.

Published in final edited form as: J Am Diet Assoc. 2011 Jan;111(1):84–91. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2010.10.012

Table 2.

Characteristics of Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study participants by dietary pattern cluster

	Healthy foods (n=374)	High-fat dairy products (n=332)	Meat, fried foods, and alcohol (n=693)	Breakfast cereal (n=386)	Refined grains (n=458)	Sweets and desserts (n=339)
	mean±standard error
Characteristic
Sex (% men)	35.8	44.9^*	48.8^*	57.0^*	51.3^*	49.3^*
Age (y)^a	74.1±0.1	74.5±0.2	73.7±0.1	74.2±0.1	74.1±0.1	74.3±0.2
Race (% white)	83.4	64.8^*	48.1^*	71.0^*	47.8^*	73.2^*
Education (% completed high school)^a	91.4	80.1^*	74.9^*	83.2^*	59.4^*	82.6^*
Smoking (lifetime pack-years)^a	13.2±1.2	20.4±1.6^*	19.6±1.1^*	18.8±1.4^*	19.1±1.3^*	20.7±1.6^*
Alcohol (% any consumption)^a	58.8	47.0^*	53.1	51.0^*	38.7^*	55.5
Physical activity (kcal/wk)^a	1,538±127	924±85^*	1,071±78^*	1,222±94	875±77^*	1,011±105^*
Body composition^a
Body mass index	26.7±0.2	27.1±0.3	28.1±0.2^*	27.5±0.2	27.4±0.2	26.5±0.2
Total body fat (%)	35.9±0.4	35.1±0.4	35.5±0.3	34.7±0.4	34.4±0.4^*	34.8±0.4
Dietary factors^b
Total energy intake (kcal)	1,703±28	1,903±35^*	1,840±25^*	1,735±28	1,848±31^*	2,076±36^*
% kcal from carbohydrate	56.9±0.4	50.9±0.4^*	50.2±0.3^*	59.2±0.4^*	52.5±0.3^*	52.6±0.3^*
% kcal from protein	17.0±0.2	14.8±0.1^*	14.3±0.1^*	14.1±0.1^*	14.0±0.1^*	12.7±0.1^*
% kcal from fat	27.5±0.3	35.6±0.4^*	35.8±0.3^*	28.4±0.3	34.6±0.3^*	36.1±0.3^*
% kcal from saturated fat	7.5±0.1	11.7±0.1^*	9.9±0.1^*	8.1±0.1^*	9.5±0.1^*	10.6±0.1^*
Total dietary fiber (g)	20.7±0.4	16.4±0.4^*	17.2±0.3^*	17.5±0.3^*	16.7±0.3^*	17.5±0.4^*
Healthy Eating Index score	80.8±0.4	68.1±0.7^*	67.2±0.4^*	72.8±0.5^*	67.9±0.5^*	63.8±0.7^*
Quality of life
Years of healthy life	6.8±0.1	6.0±0.2^*	6.0±0.1^*	6.3±0.1^*	5.7±0.1^*	6.1±0.1^*

Values from baseline of the Health ABC study.

Values from Year 2 of the Health ABC study.

Significantly different from the Healthy Foods cluster, at P≤0.05, using Dunnett’s test for continuous variables and χ² test for categorical variables.