Table 2.

Baseline characteristics of the 2005–2006 NHANES population (age ≥19 years, n 4419) across categories of PDQ

	PDQ†
	High‡ (n 1488)		Medium§ (n 1848)		Low|| (n 1427)
	%	se	%	se	%	se
Age**
19–30 years	23	2·1	39	2·0	38	2·2
31–50 years	30	2·5	41	1·8	29	1·7
51–70 years	39	1·6	40	2·0	21	1·7
71+ years	49	2·0	34	1·7	17	2·1
Sex
Female	34	2·0	40	1·2	26	1·6
Male	32	1·3	39	1·3	28	1·8
Race**
Non-Hispanic White	36	1·4	40	1·0	24	1·5
Non-Hispanic Black	25	2·1	38	2·1	38	2·0
Mexican American	21	1·6	38	2·4	41	2·0
Education**
0–11 years	24	1·7	40	1·9	36	2·1
12–15 years	30	1·4	41	0·9	28	1·7
16+ years	46	2·8	36	2·0	18	2·2
Poverty income ratio**
≤130 % of poverty threshold	28	1·9	38	2.1	35	1·9
131–185 % of poverty threshold	30	3·3	42	3·4	29	2·6
>185 % of poverty threshold	35	1·6	40	1·1	25	1·5
BMI**
18·5–24·9 kg/m2	42	2·2	36	2·3	22	1·7
25·0–29·9 kg/m2	34	1·5	43	1·2	23	1·7
≥30·0 kg/m2	23	2·2	40	1·4	36	2·3
Energy intake (kJ/d)*,¶	8820·3	137·8	9317·3	192·6	9523·6	228·6

NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; PDQ, perceived diet quality.

*P < 0·05, **P < 0·0001 across PDQ levels.

†The reported percentages represent the distribution of persons within each demographic and BMI category. PDQ represents the answer to the question ‘In general, how healthy is your overall diet?’ on a 5-point Likert scale with possible answers ranging from ‘excellent’ to ‘poor’.

‡High represents ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ PDQ.

§Medium represents ‘good’ PDQ.

||Low represents ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ PDQ.

¶These data are presented as means with their standard errors.