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Table 2 Baseline characteristics of the study population by dietary biomarker-MDS and FFQ-MDS tertiles

From: Adherence to the Mediterranean diet assessed by a novel dietary biomarker score and mortality in older adults: the InCHIANTI cohort study

Characteristics

All (n=642)

Dietary biomarker-MDS

P*

FFQ-MDS

P*

Tertile 1 (n=251)

Tertile 2 (n=193)

Tertile 3 (n=198)

Tertile 1 (n=191)

Tertile 2 (n=265)

Tertile 3 (n=186)

Age at baseline (years) a

74 (7)

75 (7)

75 (7)

73 (6)

0.013

76 (7)

75 (7)

72 (5)

<0.001

Female sex (n,%)

357 (56)

145 (58)

105 (54)

107 (54)

0.82

130 (68)

155 (58)

72 (39)

<0.001

BMI (kg/m2) a

27.4 (3.9)

27.4 (4.3)

27.9 (3.7)

27.0 (3.4)

0.19

27.4 (4.3)

27.4 (3.7)

27.6 (3.6)

0.67

Education (years) a

5.4 (3.3)

5.1 (2.6)

5.6 (3.6)

5.7 (3.6)

0.19

5.1 (3.1)

5.3 (3.2)

6.0 (3.4)

0.58

Smoking (n,%)

    

0.001

   

0.12

 Never

382 (60)

1147 (59)

115 (60)

120 (61)

 

122 (64)

167 (63)

93 (50)

 

 Former

174 (27)

58 (23)

54 (28)

62 (31)

 

44 (23)

65 (25)

65 (35)

 

Current

86 (13)

46 (18)

24 (12)

16 (8)

 

25 (13)

33 (12)

28 (15)

 

Physical activity

(n, %)

    

0.034

   

0.044

 Sedentary

110 (17)

52 (21)

437 (19)

21 (11)

 

49 (26)

44 (17)

17 (9)

 

 Light

281 (44)

115 (46)

78 (40)

88 (44)

 

87 (46)

117 (44)

77 (41)

 

 Moderate-High

251 (39)

84 (33)

78 (40)

89 (45)

 

55 (29)

104 (39)

92 (49)

 

Energy intake (kcal/day) a

1928 (543)

1833 (511)

1979 (546)

1998 (564)

0.003

1751 (539)

1905 (515)

2141 (515)

<0.001

HT (n,%)

402 (63)

157 (62)

124 (64)

121 (61)

0.96

131 (66)

165 (62)

106 (56)

0.19

IRF (n,%)

253 (39)

104 (41)

71 (37)

78 (39)

0.31

92 (48)

116 (44)

45 (24)

0.16

DM (n,%)

89 (14)

44 (18)

24 (12)

21 (11)

0.023

29 (15)

39 (15)

21 (11)

0.38

COPD (n,%)

49 (8)

24 (10)

14 (7)

11 (6)

0.05

15 (8)

18 (7)

16 (9)

0.25

CVD (n,%)

147 (23)

66 (26)

45 (23)

36 (18)

0.06

44 (23)

63 (24)

40 (22)

0.76

Cancer (n,%)

39 (6)

19 (8)

9 (5)

11 (6)

0.44

13 (7)

18 (7)

8 (4)

0.55

Dementia (n,%)

24 (4)

12 (5)

8 (4)

4 (2)

0.22

10 (5)

8 (3)

6 (3)

0.52

Parkinson’s disease

(n, %)

5 (0.8)

1 (0.4)

1 (0.5)

3 (1.5)

0.24

-

3 (1.1)

2 (1.0)

0.93

  1. BMI body mass index, IRF impaired renal function, DM diabetes mellitus, COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, HT hypertension, CVD cardiovascular disease. Cut-offs for FFQ-MDS tertiles were ≤7, 8–10, and ≥11; and for dietary biomarker-MDS tertiles: ≤8, 9–10, and ≥11. These cutoffs were chosen to achieve 3 categories with a similar number of participants in each group
  2. *p values calculated using generalized linear models adjusted for age and sex
  3. aData reported as mean (SD)
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BMC Medicine

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