. 2018 Jun 4;107(6):909–920. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqy042

TABLE 2.

Baseline characteristics of white men by diet group in the UK Biobank¹

	Meat eaters²
Characteristics	Regular consumption (>3 times/wk) (max n = 111,734)	Low consumption (≤3 times/wk) (max n = 71,355)	Poultry eaters (max n = 952)	Fish eaters (max n = 2686)	Vegetarians (max n = 2061)	Vegans (max n = 155)
Age, y	56.7 ± 8.2^c	57.0 ± 8.1^d	56.7 ± 8.3^c,d	54.3 ± 8.0^b	52.6 ± 7.9^a	53.8 ± 7.7^a,b
Top socioeconomic quintile,³n (%)	23,760 (21.3)^b	16,042 (22.5)^c	154 (16.2)^a	417 (15.5)^a	312 (15.2)^a	21 (13.5)^a,b,c
Has a degree or vocational qualification, n (%)	69,971 (63.6)^a	46,559 (66.3)^b	637 (68.1)^a,b	2103 (79.1)^c	1585 (77.6)^c	109 (71.2)^a,b,c
Smoking status, n (%)
Previous	42,939 (38.5)	27,311 (38.4)	328 (34.5)	1013 (37.8)	734 (35.7)	71 (46.1)
Current	15,584 (14.0)^c	6845 (9.6)^b	68 (7.2)^a	227 (8.5)^a,b	201 (9.8)^a,b	13 (8.4)^a,b,c
Has a long-standing illness, n (%)	34,471 (31.5)^c	20,004 (28.6)^b	262 (28.0)^a,b,c	669 (25.4)^a	551 (27.2)^a,b	55 (36.4)^a,b,c
Physical activity, n (%)
Moderate	46,201 (50.3)	31,361 (52.9)	403 (50.3)	1319 (57.0)	963 (53.9)	87 (62.6)
High	22,929 (25.0)^a	14,501 (24.5)^b	272 (34.0)^d	606 (26.2)^c	438 (24.5)^a,b,c	33 (23.7)^a,b,c,d
Has an active job, n (%)	25,801 (23.1)^b	14,742 (20.7)^a,b	194 (20.4)^a,b	491 (18.3)^a	419 (20.3)^a	28 (18.1)^a,b
Intake
Alcohol, g/d	27.4 ± 25.0^c	21.4 ± 19.6^b	17.6 ± 16.1^a	20.7 ± 18.5^b	20.2 ± 21.8^a,b	16.8 ± 19.2^a,b
Total fruit and vegetables, servings/d	4.4 ± 2.6^e	5.0 ± 2.9^d	6.3 ± 3.7^c	6.0 ± 3.3^b,c	5.9 ± 3.3^b	8.4 ± 6.3^a
Red and processed meat,⁴ g/d	80.1 ± 68.4^c	55.7 ± 58.0^b	8.7 ± 27.7^a	1.7 ± 11.9^a	0.9 ± 11.0^a	0.0 ± 0.0^a
Poultry,⁴ g/d	31.5 ± 51.3^b	32.0 ± 50.5^b	34.6 ± 53.1^b	0.9 ± 9.7^a	0.4 ± 6.6^a	0.0 ± 0.0^a
Nonoily fish,⁴ g/d	16.1 ± 38.6^c	16.4 ± 36.8^c	22.7 ± 43.6^b	21.9 ± 40.8^b	0.7 ± 7.9^a	0.0 ± 0.0^a
Oily fish,⁴ g/d	9.7 ± 26.5^e	12.6 ± 29.1^d	26.3 ± 48.7^c	18.6 ± 37.4^b	0.6 ± 6.4^a	0.0 ± 0.0^a
Total energy,⁴ kJ/d	9690 ± 2509^c	9101 ± 2379^a	9129 ± 2642^a,b	9433 ± 2403^b	9460 ± 2551^b	8961 ± 2655^a,b,c
Energy from carbohydrates, %	44.3 ± 7.9^e	46.3 ± 7.9^d	49.3 ± 8.6^b,c	48.6 ± 7.9^c	49.5 ± 7.8^b	56.3 ± 7.7^a
Energy from protein, %	15.8 ± 3.5^c	15.8 ± 3.5^c	15.5 ± 3.5^c	13.9 ± 2.8^b	12.7 ± 2.3^a	12.5 ± 2.5^a
Energy from fat, %	32.7 ± 6.6^c	31.4 ± 6.7^d	30.3 ± 7.4^e	31.8 ± 6.8^b,d	32.6 ± 7.2^b,c	28.0 ± 7.4^a
Energy from saturated fat, %	12.6 ± 3.3^e	12.0 ± 3.3^b	10.6 ± 3.7^d	11.5 ± 3.4^c	12.0 ± 3.6^b	7.6 ± 3.0^a

¹Values are means ± SDs unless otherwise indicated; n = 188,943. Groups that do not share a superscript letter were significantly different at the 5% level from post hoc pairwise comparisons based on linear regression models and after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. For categorical variables, this referred to overall differences across strata. max, maximum.

²Includes participants who consume any red or processed meat, regardless of whether they consume poultry, fish, or dairy. Cutoffs of regular and low consumption were determined on the basis of consumption of red and processed meat (beef, lamb, pork, processed meat) as reported on the touch-screen questionnaire.

³The least-deprived quintile based on the Townsend deprivation index.

⁴Based on 80,585 white men who completed ≥1 Web-based 24-h dietary assessment and after exclusion of implausible energy intakes (>20,000 kJ for men) and participants who reported any consumption of other hot or cold beverages (UK Biobank variable data field ID 100560), due to inaccurate energy coding for this variable. The max numbers for these variables in white men were as follows: 46,093 meat eaters of regular consumption, 31,516 meat eaters of low consumption, 439 poultry eaters, 1435 fish eaters, 1149 vegetarians, and 86 vegans.