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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Oct 10.
Published in final edited form as: Ann Intern Med. 2013 Nov 5;159(9):584–591. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-159-9-201311050-00004

Appendix Table 4.

Age-standardized baseline characteristics (in 1984–1986) across quintiles of the Alternate Mediterranean diet score

Quintile 1 (n=2,022) Quintile 2 (n=1,987) Quintile 3 (n=2,289) Quintile 4 (n=2,139) Quintile 5 (n=2,233)
Mean age at baseline, years a 58.8 (2.5) 58.9 (2.4) 59.1 (2.5) 59.0 (2.5) 59.2 (2.5)
Education
 Associate’s degree 83 80 79 75 73
 Bachelor’s degree 11 15 15 18 19
 Graduate degree 5 5 7 7 8
Husband’s education
 High school degree or less 63 53 52 47 42
 College degree 23 27 26 31 32
 Graduate school 14 20 21 23 26
Marital status
 Married 92 92 92 93 94
 Widowed 5 5 5 5 4
 Separated/divorced 3 3 3 2 2
BMI, kg/m2
 <22 24 24 22 22 25
 22–24 30 33 35 35 36
 25–29 31 30 32 31 30
 ≥30 15 13 11 12 10

Smoking
 Never 46 46 47 48 50
 Former 29 35 36 39 40
 Current 24 19 16 12 10
Mean physical activity, met-hours/week 9.3 (13.1) 12.8 (17.5) 13.9 (16.7) 16.3 (23.3) 20.5 (25.5)
Mean energy intake, kcal/day 1,509 (425) 1,625 (433) 1,723 (455) 1,833 (452) 1,965 (480)
Regular aspirin use
 <1/week 33 31 30 31 33
 1–2/week 32 34 33 34 33
 >2/week 35 36 36 36 34
Multivitamin use 50 54 55 57 65
History of high blood pressure 31 30 30 31 31
History of hypercholesterolemia 12 15 16 18 20
Family history of diabetes 33 29 29 29 28
Family history of cancer 18 17 19 20 20
Family history of myocardial infarction 15 17 18 18 18

Fruit, servings/day 1.0 (0.6) 1.4 (0.7) 1.7 (0.8) 1.9 (0.8) 2.3 (0.7)
Vegetables, servings/day 2.0 (0.9) 2.7 (1.2) 3.3 (1.5) 4.0 (1.7) 4.7 (1.9)
Whole grains, servings/day 0.7 (0.7) 1.0 (0.9) 1.2 (0.9) 1.5 (1.0) 1.9 (1.1)
Red/processed meats, servings/day 0.9 (0.5) 0.9 (0.5) 0.9 (0.5) 0.8 (0.5) 0.7 (0.5)
Alcohol, g/day 6.6 (12.9) 6.7 (11.1) 6.7 (10.4) 6.9 (9.7) 7.0 (8.8)
Nuts, servings/day 0.2 (0.2) 0.2 (0.2) 0.3 (0.2) 0.3 (0.2) 0.5 (0.2)
Legumes, servings/day 0.3 (0.2) 0.3 (0.2) 0.4 (0.3) 0.5 (0.3) 0.6 (0.3)
Fish, servings/day 0.2 (0.1) 0.3 (0.2) 0.3 (0.2) 0.4 (0.2) 0.5 (0.3)
MUFA:SFA ratio 1.0 (0.1) 1.0 (0.1) 1.0 (0.1) 1.1 (0.1) 1.1 (0.1)

Abbreviations: BMI: body mass index; met: metabolic-equivalent; MUFA: monounsaturated fats; SFA: saturated fats.

Values are means (SD) or percentages and are standardized to the age distribution of the study population at baseline. Percentages are of non-missing values.

a

Value is not age-standardized.

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