TABLE 1.

Demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics for all participants and men and women separately for the overall PDI: NHANES III, 1988–1994¹

	Total (n = 11,879)				Men (n = 5620)				Women (n = 6259)
	Decile 1	Decile 5	Decile 10		Decile 1	Decile 5	Decile 10		Decile 1	Decile 5	Decile 10
Characteristic	(n = 1454)	(n = 1543)	(n = 1169)	P	(n = 741)	(n = 716)	(n = 564)	P	(n = 713)	(n = 827)	(n = 605)	P
Median score	41	50	61		41	50	61		41	50	61
Female, %	44	55	52	<0.001
Race/ethnicity, %				<0.001				0.003				0.003
Non-Hispanic white	74	77	74		76	78	71		73	75	77
Non-Hispanic black	14	9	7		12	9	8		16	10	7
Mexican American	3	6	10		3	6	11		3	5	8
Other	10	8	8		9	6	10		8	10	7
Age, y	35 ± 0.3	41 ± 0.6	48 ± 0.8	<0.001	35 ± 0.6	40 ± 0.7	46 ± 1.2	<0.001	36 ± 0.7	41 ± 0.7	49 ± 0.9	<0.001
Education, %				0.003				0.02				0.004
Less than high school	26	18	25		27	21	26		25	17	24
High school	37	34	29		33	33	23		41	35	35
More than high school	37	46	46		39	46	52		34	48	41
Federal poverty level, %				0.09				0.25				0.21
<130%	19	14	20		19	15	20		21	19	21
130–350%	46	45	44		45	44	42		47	44	45
>350%	34	41	36		36	41	39		32	37	34
Marital status, %				<0.001				0.009				0.04
Married	59	70	70		59	73	78		61	65	64
Widowed, separated, or divorced	16	14	16		12	8	7		21	22	24
Never married	24	16	14		29	19	15		20	12	12
BMI (kg/m2) category, %				0.30				0.23				0.05
Underweight (<18.5)	3	2	3		1	1	2		5	3	4
Normal weight (18.5 to <25)	47	45	45		47	38	40		48	50	48
Overweight (25 to <30)	32	34	36		38	44	42		25	25	31
Obese (≥30)	18	20	16		14	17	16		22	22	16
Smoking status, %				<0.001				<0.001				<0.001
Current smoker	46	29	15		51	31	13		39	27	18
Former smoker	14	23	31		15	27	42		13	19	21
Never smoker	40	48	54		34	42	45		48	53	62
Physical activity, METs/wk	21 ± 1.3	24 ± 1.3	32 ± 1.8	<0.001	27 ± 2.0	26 ± 1.7	33 ± 2.0	0.20	15 ± 1.0	18 ± 1.0	30 ± 1.3	<0.001
Alcohol consumption, times/mo	6.6 ± 0.1	5.8 ± 0.1	4.6 ± 0.1	<0.001	8.2 ± 0.2	7.7 ± 0.2	6.5 ± 0.2	0.29	4.4 ± 0.2	4.0 ± 0.3	2.5 ± 0.1	<0.001
Hypertension, %	21	25	31	<0.001	24	27	33	0.14	19	24	30	0.002
Serum cholesterol, mg/dL	197 ± 1.4	204 ± 2.0	206 ± 2.6	<0.001	200 ± 2.2	204 ± 3.6	201 ± 3.3	0.77	194 ± 2.0	203 ± 2.7	209 ± 2.9	<0.001
eGFR, mL · min−1 · 1.73 m−2	108 ± 0.6	103 ± 0.8	98 ± 0.8	<0.001	108 ± 0.9	102 ± 0.9	97 ± 1.2	<0.001	109 ± 0.9	104 ± 1.5	98 ± 1.2	<0.001

¹Values are means ± SEs unless otherwise indicated. All analyses accounted for the complex survey design of NHANES III and included survey weights. eGFR, estimated glomerular filtration rate; MET, metabolic equivalent task; PDI, plant-based diet index.