Baseline characteristics by education level
| Characteristic* | Eligible participants, n=7306 | p Value | ||
| Low education | Medium education | High education | ||
| % in each category | 73.1 | 21.7 | 5.2 | |
| Age, mean (SD) | 62.0 (6.4) | 60.8 (6.9) | 60.6 (7.0) | <0.0001 |
| Alcohol consumption (%) | <0.0001 | |||
| Abstainer | 32.7 | 22.0 | 17.5 | |
| Light | 65.3 | 75.1 | 78.1 | |
| Moderate | 1.7 | 2.6 | 3.8 | |
| Heavy | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | |
| Body mass index (BMI) (%) | <0.0001 | |||
| Underweight | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.8 | |
| Normal | 27.5 | 36.1 | 43.7 | |
| Overweight | 48.5 | 46.9 | 40.1 | |
| Obese | 23.6 | 16.7 | 14.5 | |
| C reactive protein (CRP) (mg/L), median (IQR) | 2.0 (1.0–4.4) | 1.7 (0.8–3.5) | 1.3 (0.7–2.8) | 0.0004 |
| Daily consumption of fruit (%) | 62.3 | 64.0 | 64.5 | 0.3520 |
| Daily consumption of multivitamin supplements (%) | 14.1 | 20.3 | 21.7 | <0.0001 |
| Daily consumption of vegetables (%) | 33.7 | 39.5 | 44.7 | <0.0001 |
| Family history of diabetes (%) | 36.8 | 31.9 | 28.7 | <0.0001 |
| Fasting triglycerides (mmol/L), median (IQR) | 1.2 (0.9–1.8) | 1.2 (0.8–1.6) | 1.2 (0.8–1.7) | 0.0175 |
| HDL-cholesterol (mmol/L), mean (SD) | 1.4 (0.4) | 1.4 (0.4) | 1.4 (0.4) | 0.4614 |
| Hypertension (%) | 58.6 | 52.8 | 47.0 | <0.0001 |
| Incident type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (%) | 10.2 | 8.4 | 5.5 | 0.0021 |
| Sex, men (%) | 40.6 | 46.5 | 59.5 | <0.0001 |
| Smoking status (%) | 0.0004 | |||
| Never smoker | 53.0 | 48.8 | 47.5 | |
| Former smoker | 30.3 | 36.0 | 35.0 | |
| Current smoker | 16.8 | 15.3 | 17.5 | |
| Total/HDL-cholesterol ratio, mean (SD) | 4.3 (1.5) | 4.3 (1.6) | 4.4 (1.5) | 0.9251 |
| Total cholesterol (mmol/L), mean (SD) | 5.7 (1.3) | 5.7 (1.3) | 5.7 (1.3) | 0.5097 |
| Vigorous physical activity (%) | 40.9 | 52.8 | 60.0 | <0.0001 |
| Weekly consumption of meat (%) | 89.2 | 88.2 | 87.5 | 0.3571 |
* Missing values: age 156, alcohol consumption 762, BMI 163, CRP 285, daily consumption of fruit 368, daily consumption of multivitamin supplements 469, daily consumption of vegetables 281, education 156, family history of diabetes 255, fasting triglycerides 948, HDL-cholesterol 2889, hypertension 282, incident T2DM 156, sex 156, smoking status 328, total/HDL-cholesterol ratio 2912, total cholesterol 186, vigorous physical activity 156 and weekly consumption of meat 504.