Table 1.
General characteristics of PREDIMED-Plus participants at baseline according to tertile agreement
| Tertile agreementa | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Low HPF | High HPF | p | |
| n | 2186 | 2214 | |
| Age (years) | 66.14 (4.50) | 63.68 (5.07) | < 0.001 |
| Female sex (%) | 1522 (69.6) | 595 (26.9) | < 0.001 |
| Civil status (%) | 0.001 | ||
| Single | 115 (5.3) | 109 (4.9) | |
| Married | 1622 (74.2) | 1745 (78.8) | |
| Widowed/divorced | 449 (20.5) | 360 (16.3) | |
| Education level (%) | |||
| Primary | 1252 (57.3) | 926 (41.8) | < 0.001 |
| Secondary | 538 (24.6) | 704 (31.8) | |
| College | 396 (18.1) | 584 (26.4) | |
| Active working status (%) | 307 (14.0) | 642 (29.0) | < 0.001 |
| Energy intake (kcal/day) | 2158.46 (480.16) | 2559.84 (571.11) | < 0.001 |
| MedDiet adherence score | 9.46 (2.54) | 7.65 (2.61) | < 0.001 |
| PA level (%) | 0.001 | ||
| Low | 1188 (54.3) | 1225 (55.3) | |
| Medium | 904 (41.4) | 841 (38.0) | |
| High | 94 (4.3) | 148 (6.7) | |
| Blood pressure medication (%) | 1717 (78.5) | 1676 (75.7) | 0.027 |
| Cholesterol medication (%) | 1123 (51.4) | 1102 (49.8) | 0.303 |
| Diabetes medication (%) | 631 (28.9) | 573 (25.9) | 0.029 |
Data shown as “mean (standard deviation, SD)” for continuous variables and as “number of subjects (%)” for categorical variables. One-way ANOVA test used for continuous variables and Chi-squared test used for categorical variables. Significant p-values (< 0.05) shown in bold
MedDiet Mediterranean diet, PA Physical activity
aTertile agreement variable: score 0 – “low HPF consumer” if a subject is classified in T1 of HPF consumption by at least two classification systems; score 1 – “high HPF consumer” if a subject is classified in T3 by at least two classification systems. HPF: highly processed food. N = 4400