Table 3.

Characteristics according to dietary groups [vegetarians (no meat), flexitarians (≤1 × meat/week), regular eat-eaters (≤7 × meat/week), high meat-eaters (>1 × meat/ day)].

	Vegetarians	Flexitarians	Regular meat-eaters	High meat-eaters	x2 or F
Number of the sample	64	192	285	273
Percentage of the sample	7.9	23.6	35.0	33.5
Gender (%)
Female	60.9%a,b	65.6%a	58.2%a	45.4%b	x2 = 21.315, V = 0.162***
Mean Age (SD)	27.8a	32.7a,b	32.7a,b	34.3b	F = 3.101, η2 = 0.107*
Level of education (%)
Lower	26.6%a,b	34.9%a,b	30.9%a	41.8%b	x2 = 9.590, V = 0.109*
Middle	28.1%	27.1%	31.2%	22.3%	x2 = 5.625, V = 0.083
Higher	35.9%	28.1%	24.6%	27.1%	x2 = 3.557, V = 0.066
Mean number of persons in the household (SD)	2.0	2.1	2.1	1.3	F = 2.594, η2 = 0.098
Mean number of children (SD)	1.3	1.2	1.3	1.4	F = 1.211, η2 = 0.067
Region of residence (%)
Rural area	31.3%	17.2%	18.6%	22.7%	x2 = 7.237, V = 0.094
Small town	12.5%	24.5%	16.1%	21.2%	x2 = 7.599 V = 0.097
Middle-sized town	21.9%	27.1%	31.9%	23.8%	x2 = 5.711, V = 0.084
Major city	34.4%	31.3%	33.3%	32.2%	x2 = 0.337 V = 0.020
Household income (%)
Below 1,200€	31.1%	25.5%	22.5%	19.4%	x2 = 5.192, V = 0.080
>1,200€−2,400€	37.5%	39.1%	35.1%	33.7%	x2 = 1.557, V = 0.044
>2,400€−3,600€	18.8%	24.5%	24.9%	29.3%	x2 = 3.705., V = 0.067
>3,600€−4,800€	6.3%	5.7%	10.9%	12.5%	x2 = 7.043, V = 0.093
Above 4,800€	6.3%	5.2%	6.7%	5.1%	x2 = 0.766, V = 0.031
Mean BMI* (SD)	27.1 (8.092)	28.6 (9.115)	27.7 (7.576)	27.6 (8.617)	F = 1.761, η2 = 0.081
High level of physical activity (%)
<2 h/week	75.8%	70.1%	76.4%	73.5%	x2 = 2.504, V = 0.056
≥2 h/week	24.2%	29.9%	23.6%	26.5%
Low level of physical activity (%)
<2 h/week	34.9%	39.3%	36.4%	41.2%	x2 = 1.714, V = 0.046
≥2 h/week	65.1%	60.7%	63.6%	58.8%

^*BMI (Body Mass Index): <18.5 = underweight; 18.5–24.9 = normal weight; 25.0–30.0 = overweight; >30.0 = obese. Percentages and means with different superscript letters (

^a,b) differ significantly (Bonferroni test, p < 0.05).

^* p < 0.05;

^** p < 0.01;

^***p < 0.001.