Table 3.

Association between the nine food components of Mediterranean diet and telomere length

		Model 1		Model 2		Model 3
		β	p	β	p	β	p
All subjects	Fruit and nutsa	−26.19	0.54	−37.45	0.38	−41.33	0.35
	Vegetablesa	80.84	0.06	89.13	0.04	70.77	0.12
	Fisha	−0.03	1.00	3.13	0.94	12.33	0.78
	Legumea	0.94	0.98	−11.45	0.80	−6.26	0.89
	Cereala	−92.50	0.03	−93.51	0.03	−96.92	0.03
	MUFA/SFAa	56.44	0.17	52.93	0.20	38.32	0.37
	Dairya	54.42	0.19	56.34	0.18	59.16	0.18
	Meata	36.03	0.40	27.72	0.52	47.83	0.29
	Alcohola	5.73	0.91	3.90	0.94	−20.37	0.70
	Nuts	52.06	0.24	55.11	0.22	31.17	0.51
	Whole grain cereals	34.00	0.41	26.52	0.53	−8.20	0.85
Whites	Fruit and nutsa	−4.83	0.95	−23.73	0.78	−31.89	0.71
	Vegetablesa	153.28	0.07	152.52	0.07	122.07	0.16
	Fisha	−16.36	0.84	−37.94	0.65	−39.83	0.63
	Legumea	−90.23	0.30	−97.12	0.27	−87.67	0.33
	Cereala	−142.08	0.08	−143.62	0.08	−141.12	0.09
	MUFA/SFAa	68.33	0.39	66.49	0.41	42.13	0.61
	Dairya	160.67	0.04	154.68	0.05	175.73	0.03
	Meata	252.33	0.002	240.54	0.004	261.08	0.002
	Alcohola	107.24	0.21	107.36	0.22	66.63	0.45
	Nuts	59.58	0.49	30.03	0.65	9.98	0.91
	Whole grain cereals	70.62	0.40	68.13	0.48	74.08	0.39
African Americans	Fruit and nutsa	−78.16	0.31	−95.38	0.22	−101.36	0.21
	Vegetablesa	59.22	0.44	53.99	0.49	51.60	0.53
	Fisha	−3.93	0.96	−10.18	0.89	23.99	0.76
	Legumea	19.94	0.79	22.44	0.77	37.39	0.65
	Cereala	−79.95	0.30	−83.12	0.29	−64.08	0.44
	MUFA/SFAa	60.61	0.40	53.89	0.46	55.96	0.47
	Dairya	64.19	0.39	69.37	0.36	46.59	0.56
	Meata	8.15	0.92	−2.22	0.98	−13.37	0.88
	Alcohola	3.11	0.97	16.81	0.85	−0.97	0.99
	Nuts	153.65	0.05	147.40	0.07	124.86	0.14
	Whole grain cereals	30.37	0.68	32.54	0.66	20.50	0.79
Hispanics	Fruit and nutsa	−26.30	0.68	−27.15	0.67	−15.32	0.82
	Vegetablesa	45.95	0.47	77.24	0.24	46.11	0.50
	Fisha	28.14	0.66	65.87	0.31	62.20	0.36
	Legumea	36.56	0.59	19.99	0.77	13.02	0.86
	Cereala	−61.13	0.35	−54.53	0.42	−73.06	0.29
	MUFA/SFAa	58.30	0.35	45.30	0.47	12.32	0.85
	Dairya	−37.78	0.55	−34.18	0.59	−30.36	0.65
	Meata	−92.34	0.15	−97.28	0.13	−67.62	0.32
	Alcohola	−140.78	0.12	−143.47	0.12	−168.97	0.08
	Nuts	−71.65	0.30	−77.09	0.28	−65.21	0.37
	Whole grain cereals	−85.83	0.19	−81.03	0.23	−73.76	0.29

Model 1: Adjusted for age (at time of blood sample collection for telomere), sex, education, ethnicity, and caloric intake. Model2: Adjusted for age (at time of blood sample collection for telomere), sex, education, ethnicity, caloric intake, smoking status, and leisure/physical activities. Model 3: Adjusted for age (at time of blood sample collection for telomere), sex, education, ethnicity, caloric intake, smoking status, leisure/physical activities, VHS, cognitive status, and functional status. All food components of MeDi were included in the model simultaneously; no ethnicity in the ethnic-stratified analysis. Comparisons for the estimated β (p) were above median vs. below median for fruits and nuts, vegetables, fish, legume, cereal, MUFA/SFA, nuts, and whole grain cereals, were below median vs. above median for dairy and meat intakes, and were moderate vs. others for alcohol intake

^aFood components of MeDi were entered into models simultaneously

The bold entries are those with p-value <=0.05