Table 1. Characteristics ^a of Participants in Different Categories of Chocolate Consumption at Visit 1 in the ARIC ^b Cohort.

	Frequency of Consumption of a 1 oz Serving of Chocolate
	<1/month	1–4/month	2–6/week	≥1/day
Characteristics	(N = 5,084)	(N = 6,256)	(N = 2,805)	(N = 1,030)	P-value c
Age (yrs)	54.7 (5.8)	54.0 (5.7)	53.9 (5.7)	53.7 (5.6)	<.0005
Chocolate (servings/day)	0.00 (0.00)	0.10 (0.04)	0.50 (0.14)	1.26 (0.73)	NA
BMI (Kg/m2)d	27.8 (5.6)	27.7 (5.3)	27.5 (5.2)	27.3 (5.2)	.11
race (% Black)	39.0	22.7	15.2	18.3	<.0005
sex (% male)	44.6	43.7	47.8	44.4	.004
Ever smoker (%)	57.0	57.4	60.2	64.1	<.0005
Alcohol Intake (gms/week)	47.8 (109.0)	41.3 (93.0)	39.6 (83.8)	33.4 (81.8)	<.0005
Educational Levele	3.34 (1.60)	3.66 (1.47)	3.69 (1.40)	3.48 (1.45)	<.0005
Basic	29.6	20.6	18.6	25.0	<.0005
Intermediate	36.8	41.8	44.6	44.3
Advanced	33.6	37.6	36.8	30.8
Physical Activitye	6.86 (1.51)	7.01 (1.42)	7.09 (1.40)	6.97 (1.51)	<.0005
Dietary Calories (Kcal/day)	1,455 (547)	1576 (559)	1,858 (625)	2126 (680)	<.0005
Daily Fat (gm)f	48.2 (12.5)	50.9 (12.1)	54.0 (12.9)	56.7 (14.4)	<.0005
Vegetables (servings/day)	1.58 (1.09)	1.36 (0.94)	1.27 (0.96)	1.13 (0.96)	<.0005
Fruit (servings/day)f	1.54 (1.38)	1.38 (1.20)	1.27 (1.14)	1.23 (1.42)	<.0005

^aData are given as mean (SD) for continuous variables and as percentages for categorical variables. Data are for participants with no missing values for any of the characteristics in this table. N is the number of such participants.

^bARIC, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Cohort.

^cBased on the analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test, or Chi-square test.

^dBMI, Body Mass Index, calculated as measured weight in kilograms divided by the square of measured height in meters.

^eEducational level and Physical activity were quantified by ARIC researchers. Physical activity was based on exercise, work and leisure activities.

^fAdjusted for daily caloric intake using the residual method [9].