Table 2.
Group food consumption of the study population according to tertiles of Mediterranean diet adherence.
| Variables | 1st Tertile n = 30 MD score ≤3 | 2nd Tertile n = 49 MD score 4–5 | 3rd Tertile n = 27 MD score ≥6 | P-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MD score*; median [Pc25-Pc75] | 3 [2–3]a | 4 [4–5]b | 6 [6–7]c | <0.001 |
| Vegetables (g/d); mean (±SD) | 284.3 (±133.7)a | 458.7 (±243.4)b,c | 561.2 (±200.2)c | <0.001 |
| Legumes (g/d); mean (±SD) | 18.0 (±10.5)a | 24.6 (±18.2)a | 36.6 (±21.8)b | <0.001 |
| Fruits and nuts (g/d); mean (±SD) | 176.3 (±104.4)a | 272.4 (±151.2)b | 353.2 (±137.6)c | <0.001 |
| Dairy products (g/d); mean (±SD) | 361.8 (±225.6) | 316.1 (±188.3) | 331.7 (±308.1) | 0.702 |
| Cereals (g/d); mean (±SD) | 119.2 (±74.4)a | 162.3 (±86.3)a,b | 177.7 (±99.3)b | 0.029 |
| Meat (g/d); mean (±SD) | 194.9 (±68.7) | 229.7 (±112.4) | 212.4 (±104.0) | 0.322 |
| Fish and seafood (g/d); mean (±SD) | 66.5 (±34.7)a | 91.3 (±56.1)a,b | 147.4 (±67.4)c | <0.001 |
| MUFA/SFA (ratio/d); mean (±SD) | 0.83 (±0.28) | 0.82 (±0.23) | 0.85 (±0.25) | 0.911 |
| Alcohol (g/d); mean (±SD) | 7.29 (±12.15) | 9.17 (±8.87) | 10.93 (±6.78) | 0.353 |
Abbreviations. g/d: grams per day, MD: Mediterranean diet, MUFA: monounsaturated fatty acids, Pc: percentile, SD: standard deviation, SFA: saturated fatty acids.
*MD score (Trichopoulou et al.)18.
Continuous variables were presented as means (±SD) or medians [25th-75th percentiles (Pc)]. Differences in variables across tertiles of MD adherence were tested using ANOVA test. Same superscripts in different columns denote non-significant differences while different superscript letters denote statistically significant differences in a paired comparison (after multiple comparison post-hoc Bonferroni test).