Table 2.
Description of population characteristics across the tertiles of the dietary inflammatory index
(Number of participants and percentages*; mean values and standard deviations†)
| Characteristics | Tertile 1 (<− 1·38)
|
Tertile 2 (−1·38 to −0·70)
|
Tertile 3 (>−0·70)
|
P‡ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | n | % | n | % | ||
| Age (years) | 0·79 | ||||||
| Mean | 46·1 | 45·6 | 46·2 | ||||
| SD | 6·0 | 6·0 | 5·9 | ||||
| BMI (kg/m2) | 0·83 | ||||||
| Mean | 25·6 | 25·9 | 25·6 | ||||
| SD | 4·1 | 4·2 | 4·3 | ||||
| Smoking status | <0·0001 | ||||||
| Non-smoker | 441 | 53·6 | 421 | 51·1 | 406 | 49·1 | |
| Ex-smoker | 256 | 31·1 | 243 | 29·5 | 198 | 23·9 | |
| Current smoker | 126 | 15·3 | 160 | 19·4 | 223 | 27·0 | |
| Sex | 0·0004 | ||||||
| Females | 471 | 57·2 | 404 | 49·0 | 401 | 48·5 | |
| Males | 352 | 42·8 | 420 | 51·0 | 426 | 51·5 | |
| Food group intake | |||||||
| Vegetables (g/d) | <0·0001 | ||||||
| Mean | 229·4 | 183·7 | 113·2 | ||||
| SD | 65·4 | 68·4 | 64·5 | ||||
| Fish and fish products (g/d) | <0·0001 | ||||||
| Mean | 24·9 | 22·3 | 18·9 | ||||
| SD | 22·2 | 19·3 | 17·5 | ||||
| Fruit (g/d) | <0·0001 | ||||||
| Mean | 241·2 | 152·6 | 86·2 | ||||
| SD | 116·3 | 110·8 | 85·5 | ||||
| Sugared drinks (ml/d) | 0·01 | ||||||
| Mean | 452·9 | 509·3 | 504·5 | ||||
| SD | 434·2 | 418·1 | 425·6 | ||||
| Meat (g/d) | <0·0001 | ||||||
| Mean | 119·0 | 129·7 | 107·0 | ||||
| SD | 58·9 | 62·8 | 62·6 | ||||
| Inflammatory markers | |||||||
| CRP (>3 mg/l) | 0·83 | ||||||
| High | 173 | 21·0 | 169 | 20·5 | 164 | 19·8 | |
| Low | 650 | 79·0 | 655 | 79·5 | 663 | 80·2 | |
| IL-6 | 0·30 | ||||||
| >1·5 pg/ml | 194 | 23·6 | 221 | 26·8 | 214 | 25·9 | |
| ≤1·5 pg/ml | 629 | 76·4 | 603 | 73·2 | 613 | 74·1 | |
| Homocysteine (>15 μmol/l) | 0·002 | ||||||
| High | 44 | 5·3 | 67 | 8·1 | 83 | 10·0 | |
| Low | 779 | 95·7 | 757 | 91·9 | 744 | 90·0 | |
| Leucocyte count (×103/μl) | 0·02 | ||||||
| Mean | 6·4 | 6·6 | 6·6 | ||||
| SD | 1·7 | 1·7 | 1·7 | ||||
| Fibrinogen (g/l) | 0·57 | ||||||
| Mean | 3·24 | 3·23 | 3·22 | ||||
| SD | 0·58 | 0·60 | 0·63 | ||||
*
Categorical variables.
†
Continuous variables.
‡
The t test was used for continuous variables and χ2 test for categorical variables.