Table 2.
Age-standardized Characteristics According to Western Diet Score Tertiles in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (Men, 1986–2014) and the Nurses’ Health Study (Women, 1980–2014)
| Characteristic* | Health Professionals Follow-up Study | Nurses’ Health Study | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western diet score | Western diet score | |||||
| Tertile 1 | Tertile 2 | Tertile 3 | Tertile 1 | Tertile 2 | Tertile 3 | |
| Participants, No. | 17,429 | 14,217 | 15,803 | 27,645 | 27,702 | 31,979 |
| Mean age, years | 65.1 | 64.7 | 63.3 | 62.8 | 61.3 | 60.0 |
| Mean body mass index, kg/m2 | 25.3 | 25.9 | 26.3 | 24.9 | 25.3 | 25.9 |
| Mean physical activity, METS-hours/week† | 29.6 | 27.2 | 26.2 | 12.4 | 10.5 | 9.3 |
| Mean pack-years smoked | 9.0 | 11.3 | 15.2 | 11.6 | 12.5 | 13.8 |
| Family history of colorectal cancer, % | 15.1 | 14.7 | 14.5 | 19.1 | 18.8 | 18.9 |
| History of previous endoscopy, % | 25.1 | 24.9 | 22.6 | 28.6 | 27.6 | 26.3 |
| Current multivitamin use, % | 48.5 | 47.8 | 44.3 | 55.1 | 52.3 | 48.2 |
| Regular aspirin or NSAID use, %‡ | 43.7 | 48.4 | 49.4 | 57.7 | 60.6 | 60.8 |
| Postmenopausal, % | 74.8 | 74.0 | 72.7 | |||
| Current hormone use, %§ | 47.1 | 44.8 | 42.4 | |||
| Dietary intake (means) | ||||||
| Total calorie intake, kcal/day | 1,610 | 1,900 | 2,420 | 1,430 | 1,620 | 1,990 |
| Unprocessed red meat, servings/day | 0.30 | 0.56 | 0.88 | 0.45 | 0.63 | 0.82 |
| Processed red meat, servings/day | 0.12 | 0.28 | 0.56 | 0.15 | 0.28 | 0.47 |
| Poultry, servings/day | 0.40 | 0.39 | 0.39 | 0.34 | 0.31 | 0.31 |
| Fruit, servings/day | 2.82 | 2.39 | 2.25 | 2.49 | 2.18 | 2.07 |
| Vegetable, servings/day | 3.31 | 3.15 | 3.26 | 2.88 | 2.62 | 2.63 |
| Alcohol, g/day | 8.0 | 11.2 | 13.9 | 6.5 | 6.1 | 5.5 |
| Folate, μg/day | 619 | 545 | 481 | 494 | 424 | 371 |
| Calcium, mg/day | 1,030 | 928 | 860 | 1,070 | 927 | 819 |
| Vitamin D, IU/day | 515 | 428 | 368 | 429 | 355 | 299 |
| Dietary fiber, g/day | 25.7 | 21.5 | 19.1 | 18.9 | 16.1 | 14.3 |
Updated information throughout follow-up was used to calculate the mean for continuous variables and percentage for categorical variables. All variables are age-standardized except age.
Physical activity is represented by the product sum of the metabolic equivalent task score (METS) of each specific recreational activity and hours spent on that activity per week.
Regular users are defined as ≥2 standard (325-mg) tablets of aspirin or ≥ 2 tablets of NSAIDs per week.
Proportion of current menopausal hormone use is calculated among postmenopausal women only.
Abbreviations: METS, metabolic equivalent task score; NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.