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. 2018 Jul 23;190(29):E871–E882. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.170914

Table 1:

Predictor variables for the Cardiovascular Disease Population Risk Tool

Variable Scale Initial variable specification* Variable form, full model† Variable form, reduced model‡
Demographic
Age Continuous 5 knot spline
Valid range: 20–101 (women), 20–102 (men)		 Unchanged Unchanged
Sex Dichotomous Stratified: female, male NA NA
Health behaviours
Pack-years of smoking§ Continuous 3 knot spline
Valid range: 0–79 (women), 0–109 (men)		 Unchanged Unchanged
Smoking status§ Categorical 4 categories:

  • Nonsmoker

  • Current smoker

  • Former smoker < 5 yr ago

  • Former smoker ≥ 5 yr ago

 Unchanged Unchanged
Alcohol (no. of drinks in the past wk)§ Continuous 3 knot spline
Valid range: 0–26 (women), 0–53 (men)		 Linear (women), 3 knot spline (men) Unchanged
Former drinker§ Dichotomous Yes/no Unchanged Excluded (men)
Fruits and vegetables (average daily consumption)§ Continuous 3 knot spline
Valid range: 0–13 (women), 0–12 (men)		 Unchanged Unchanged
Potato (average daily consumption)§ Continuous 3 knot spline
Valid range: 0–2
Linear (women), 3 knot spline (men)		 Excluded (women)
Juice (average daily consumption)§ Continuous 3 knot spline
Valid range: 0–5 (women), 0–6 (men)		 Linear Excluded (women)
Leisure physical activity (metabolic equivalent of task [MET], kcal/kg/d)§ Continuous 3 knot spline
Valid range: 0–11 (women), 0–13 (men)		 3 knot spline (women), linear (men) Excluded (men)
General health
Self-perceived stress Ordinal 5 categories:

  • Not at all stressful

  • Not very stressful

  • A bit stressful

  • Quite a bit stressful

  • Extremely stressful

 2 categories

  • Not at all, not very or a bit stressful

  • Quite a bit or extremely stressful

 Excluded
Sense of belonging to local community Ordinal 4 categories:

  • Very strong

  • Somewhat strong

  • Somewhat weak

  • Very weak

 4 categories (women), linear (men) Excluded
Sociodemographic
Ethnicity Categorical 7 categories:

  • White

  • Black

  • Chinese

  • Aboriginal

  • South Asian, Arab, West Asian

  • Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian, Filipino

  • Other, multiple origin, unknown, Latin American

 2 categories:

  • White

  • Nonwhite

 Excluded
Immigrant Dichotomous Yes/no Unchanged Excluded
% of lifetime in Canada Continuous 3 knot spline
0–100		 Linear Excluded
Education Categorical 4 categories:

  • Less than secondary

  • Secondary school graduation

  • Some postsecondary

  • Postsecondary graduation

 Unchanged Unchanged
Neighbourhood social and material deprivation (Pampalon’s deprivation index20) Ordinal 3 categories:

  • Low (1st or 2nd quintile)

  • High (4th or 5th quintile)

  • Moderate (all others)

 Linear Excluded
Chronic conditions
Diabetes§ Dichotomous Yes/no Unchanged Unchanged
High blood pressure§ Dichotomous Yes/no Unchanged Unchanged
Body mass index§ Continuous 3 knot spline
10–48 (women), 9–44 (men)		 Unchanged Unchanged
Design
Survey year Ordinal 4 categories
2001, 2003, 2005, 2007		 Unchanged Unchanged

Note: df = degrees of freedom.

*

df = 61.

†

df = 48 for women; df = 47 for men.

‡

df = 36 for women; df = 37 for men.

§

Age interaction included.