TABLE 1.

Baseline characteristics^a of women who had normal body mass index at baseline and remained normal weight during follow-up compared with those who became overweight or obese

	Remaining normal weight N = 348	Becoming overweight or obese N = 186	Pb
N of hypertension case / control	127 / 221	91 / 95	0.005
Age, y	54.5 ± 6.8	52.5 ± 5.5	0.0003
Body mass index, Kg/m2	21.7 ± 1.4	23.6 ± 1.1	< 0.0001
Total energy intake, Kcal/d	1746.2 ± 553.1	1706.5 ± 529.6	0.42
Exercise, Kcal/week	1084.1 ± 1171.0	977.5 ± 1086.2	0.30
Race, % of white	70.9	75.4	0.27
Smoking, %			0.17
Current	10.3	13.4
Past	27.6	32.8
Never	62.1	53.8
Alcohol Intake, %			0.40
Never	42.0	40.3
>0 – <5 g/day	29.6	35.5
5 - <15 g/day	20.4	15.6
≥15 g/day	8.05	8.60
Postmenopausal, %	54.2	46.8	0.32
Postmenopausal hormone use, %	44.7	44.6	0.99
Multivitamin use, %	29.4	30.4	0.80
History of hypercholesterolemia, %	22.4	26.3	0.31
Erythrocyte fatty acid composition, %
cis polyunsaturated fatty acid	33.2 ± 3.6	33.2 ± 3.6	0.90
cis ω6 polyunsaturated fatty acid	26.9 ± 2.9	27.1 ± 2.9	0.45
cis ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acid	6.31 ± 1.64	6.07 ± 1.56	0.10
ω6/ω3 ratio	4.59 ± 1.42	4.78 ± 1.44	0.14
trans fatty acid	1.98 ± 0.61	2.03 ± 0.58	0.34

^aValues were mean±standard deviation (SD) for continuous variables and % for categorical variables.

^bP for t-tests for continuous variable and chi-square test for categorical variable

BMI: body mass index.