General characteristics of the individuals included in the pooling project at baseline of the cohorts
| TLGS* | ICS | GCS1 | GCS2 | ShECS | |
| Continuous variables as mean (SD) | |||||
| Age, years | 53.6 (9.8) | 53.7 (10.4) | 51.9 (8.7) | 55.3 (7.9) | 50.8 (6.2) |
| Body mass index, kg/m2 | 27.9 (4.6) | 26.8 (4.5) | 26.6 (5.4) | 27.0 (5.3) | 28.4 (4.9) |
| Waist circumference, cm | 92.7 (11.2) | 95.1 (12.2) | 95.1 (13.7) | 94.1 (13.8) | – |
| Hip circumference, cm | 101.8 (9.7) | 101.7 (10.1) | 99.4 (9.3) | 98.9 (8.9) | – |
| Serum cholesterol, mmol/L | 5.7 (1.2) | 5.6 (1.4) | – | 5.3 (1.1) | – |
| Ln serum triglyceride, mmol/L† | 2.2 (0.5) | 2.3 (0.5) | – | 1.9 (0.5) | – |
| Serum HDL, mmol/L | 1.1 (0.3) | 1.2 (0.3) | – | 1.6 (0.4) | – |
| Serum LDL, mmol/L | 3.7 (1.0) | 3.4 (1.4) | – | 3.0 (0.9) | – |
| Categorical variables as n (%) | |||||
| Education, diploma and higher | 1802 (31.4) | 831 (16.4) | 3854 (8.4) | 1067 (10.4) | 1906 (41.6) |
| Current smoking | 865 (15.1) | 793 (15.6) | 5045 (11.0) | 869 (8.5) | 508 (11.1) |
| Diabetes‡ | 784 (13.7) | 481 (9.5) | – | 1250 (12.3) | 528 (11.5) |
| Self-reported diabetes§ | 765 (13.3) | 621 (12.2) | 2902 (6.3) | 999 (9.8) | 508 (11.1) |
| Hypertension¶ | 1926 (33.6) | 1610 (31.7) | 18 823 (41.0) | 3858 (37.7) | 1843 (40.2) |
| Family history of CVD | 944 (16.5) | 485 (9.5) | – | – | – |
| Family history of diabetes | 1624 (28.3) | 517 (10.2) | – | – | – |
*Because of small sample size of the eligible participants from the TLGS2, the values of TLGS1 and TLGS2 have been reported as TLGS.
†Because of skewness in TG, the log transformation has been reported.
‡Diabetes was defined as FBS ≥126 mg/dL or using glucose-lowering medication. In ShECS, the definition was based on blood sugar ≥200 mg/dL or using glucose-lowering medication.
§Self-reported diabetes was defined as diagnosis by physician or using glucose-lowering medication.
¶Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥140 or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 or using antihypertensive medication.
GCS1, Golestan Cohort Study phase 1; GCS2, Golestan Cohort Study phase 2; ICS, Isfahan Cohort Study; ShECS, Shahroud Eye Cohort Study; TLGS, Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study; HDL, High Density Lipoprotein cholesterol; LDL, Low Density Lipoprotein cholesterol; TG, Triglycerides.