Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of the participants overall and by vital status at follow-up

Characteristic	All (N = 413)	Alive at the end of the follow-up (N = 257)	Dead (N = 156)
Age at baseline, mean (SD), years	68.6 (3.4)	67.9 (3.2)	69.8 (3.4)
Epigenetic clocks
Horvath’s DNAmAge, mean (SD), years	66.9 (5.7)	66.1 (5.6)	68.2 (5.6)
DNAm GrimAge, mean (SD), years	59.9 (4.4)	58.8 (4.0)	61.5 (4.5)
Age acceleration (AA)
AAHorvath	− 0.03 (4.54)	− 0.09 (4.6)	0.07 (4.44)
AAGrimAge	− 0.05 (3.19)	− 0.40 (3.0)	0.54 (3.45)
Education, mean (SD), years	8.6 (3.0)*	8.9 (3.1)	8.2 (2.8)
Cigarette smoking, n (%) of participants
Never smokers	362 (87.9)	230 (89.5)	133 (85.3)
Former smokers	30 (7.3)	18 (7.0)	12 (7.7)
Current smokers	20 (4.9)	9 (3.5)	11 (7.1)
Lifetime smoking pack-years, mean (SD)
Former smokers	10.5 (12.7)	11.6 (14.2)	8.7 (10.4)
Current smokers	25.0 (14.7)	21.6 (4.5)	27.7 (4.8)
Body mass index, mean (SD), kg/m2	27.9 (4.7)	28.1 (4.9)	27.6 (4.4)
Physical activity group, mean (SD)	2.2 (1.3)	2.4 (1.3)	2.1 (1.3)
Physical activity group, n (%) of participants
Mainly sedentary	117 (28.3)	68 (26.5)	49 (31.4)
Light physical activity	136 (32.9)	80 (31.1)	56 (35.9)
Moderate to vigorous physical activity	160 (38.8)	109 (42.4)	51 (32.7)
Alcohol consumption, n (%) of participants
Abstainer	143 (34.6%)	76 (29.6%)	67 (42.9%)
Light drinker	197 (47.7%)	132 (51.4%)	65 (41.7%)
Moderate drinker	53 (12.8%)	36 (14.0%)	17 (10.9%)
Heavy drinker	19 (4.6%)	12 (4.7%)	7 (4.5%)
Alcohol consumption, geometric mean (SD), g/d	3.1 (5.7)	3.3 (5.5)	2.8 (5.9)
Number of chronic diseases, mean (SD)	2.0 (1.5)	1.8 (1.3)	2.3 (1.7)

^*N = 402

Epigenetic age acceleration (AA) was calculated as the residuals from a linear regression model of epigenetic age estimate on chronological age