Table 2.
Characteristics (mean [SD] or percentage) of participants according to extreme quintiles of different diet quality scores
| Mediterranean | Pro-vegetarian | Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diet Score | Dietary Pattern | |||||
| 0–<3 | 6–9 | Q1 | Q5 | Q1 | Q5 | |
| (n = 2,512) | (n = 3,427) | (n = 3,018) | (n = 3,019) | (n = 3,018) | (n = 3,018) | |
| Age (years) | 34.4 | 42.2 | 35.4 | 41.9 | 35.1 | 42.7 |
| Male gender (%) | 39.6 | 45.5 | 43.1 | 43.2 | 46.0 | 38.4 |
| Marital status married (%) | 44.6 | 58.8 | 47.0 | 57.7 | 46.1 | 57.8 |
| Unemployed (%) | 4.6 | 2.8 | 4.9 | 2.7 | 4.2 | 2.8 |
| Smoking status (%) | ||||||
| Ex-smoker | 22.8 | 35.6 | 25.1 | 34.3 | 23.8 | 37.0 |
| Current smoker | 21.3 | 19.5 | 24.7 | 17.2 | 24.9 | 16.1 |
| Use of vitamin supplements | ||||||
| Supplementsa (%) | 2.5 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 2.1 |
| Special diet at baseline (%) | 4.9 | 9.5 | 6.1 | 10.5 | 4.6 | 13.0 |
| Post-menopauseb (%) | 6.5 | 16.6 | 6.7 | 17.4 | 6.4 | 19.3 |
| Prevalence of diseases (%) | ||||||
| CVD | 2.6 | 5.3 | 3.1 | 5.4 | 3.3 | 5.4 |
| Cancer | 3.0 | 4.6 | 3.0 | 4.1 | 2.5 | 4.7 |
| T2DM | 0.9 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 2.8 |
| HTA | 4.8 | 10.1 | 5.4 | 9.6 | 5.7 | 9.8 |
| Dyslipidaemia | 13.2 | 23.9 | 13.4 | 24.2 | 15.0 | 23.1 |
| Obesity | 4.1 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.1 | 5.0 | 3.8 |
| Body mass index (kg/m2) | 23.2 | 23.8 | 23.5 | 23.6 | 23.5 | 23.6 |
| Energy intake (kcal/d) | 2204 | 2512 | 2441 | 2361 | 2429 | 2254 |
| Physical activity during leisure-time (METs-h/w) | 18.4 | 25.3 | 20.3 | 23.7 | 19.1 | 25.0 |
| Alcohol intake (drinks/d) | 4.1 | 9.3 | 6.9 | 6.6 | 8.0 | 6.1 |
| Mediterranean Diet Score | 1.6 | 6.5 | 3.0 | 5.7 | 3.0 | 5.6 |
| Pro-vegetarian Dietary Pattern | 31.6 | 40.1 | 29.4 | 43.5 | 32.4 | 40.1 |
| AHEI-2010 | 49.5 | 65.6 | 51.3 | 65.7 | 44.6 | 72.6 |
Abbreviations: AHEI Alternative Healthy Eating Index, CVD cardiovascular disease, HTA hypertension, METs metabolic equivalents, Q1,Q5 Quintile1, Quintile5, SD standard deviation, T2DM type 2 diabetes mellitus
aUse of at least one of the following vitamin supplements: A, B1, B2, B3, B6, folic acid, B12, C, D or E
b8,847 women were included