Baseline characteristics of 148 506 participants in the Million Veteran Program according to PDI scores
| Quintiles of PDI | Quintiles of hPDI | Quintiles of uPDI | |||||||
| Q1 | Q3 | Q5 | Q1 | Q3 | Q5 | Q1 | Q3 | Q5 | |
| N | 32 164 | 35 761 | 32 965 | 30 162 | 32 609 | 28 796 | 31 835 | 29 426 | 28 781 |
| PDI score | 38.9 | 47.5 | 56.1 | 46.6 | 47.3 | 48.9 | 47.4 | 47.8 | 47.1 |
| hPDI score | 47.3 | 48.4 | 49.7 | 38.7 | 48.5 | 58.4 | 52.1 | 48.4 | 45.0 |
| uPDI score | 47.7 | 47.9 | 47.3 | 51.3 | 47.9 | 43.5 | 37.3 | 47.5 | 58.4 |
| Age, years | 60.9 | 61.1 | 61.8 | 60.2 | 61.4 | 62.1 | 61.9 | 61.7 | 59.7 |
| Men, % | 87.1 | 88.0 | 89.0 | 91.5 | 88.5 | 83.1 | 85.8 | 88.9 | 88.7 |
| European Americans, % | 80.6 | 81.7 | 81.7 | 79.5 | 81.5 | 83.4 | 85.8 | 81.2 | 77.2 |
| African American, % | 14.0 | 12.8 | 12.7 | 15.5 | 13.0 | 10.6 | 9.1 | 12.9 | 17.1 |
| Married, % | 53.4 | 58.2 | 60.8 | 55.3 | 58.7 | 57.5 | 61.0 | 59.0 | 51.6 |
| Education level, % | |||||||||
| ≤High school or GED | 23.4 | 20.6 | 18.5 | 24.8 | 20.8 | 16.7 | 13.8 | 19.9 | 28.4 |
| Some colleague | 30.6 | 29.4 | 28.3 | 32.2 | 29.5 | 26.2 | 26.6 | 29.6 | 31.2 |
| College or above | 46.0 | 50.0 | 53.2 | 42.9 | 49.7 | 57.0 | 59.5 | 50.5 | 40.4 |
| Annual family income, % | |||||||||
| <30 000 | 35.0 | 31.9 | 31.3 | 36.8 | 31.7 | 29.8 | 27.2 | 32.1 | 38.6 |
| 30 000–59 000 | 33.4 | 34.5 | 34.8 | 35.0 | 34.6 | 33.1 | 33.2 | 34.5 | 34.8 |
| ≥60 000 | 31.6 | 33.6 | 33.9 | 28.2 | 33.6 | 37.1 | 39.6 | 33.4 | 26.6 |
| Smoking status, % | |||||||||
| Current smoking | 24.7 | 23.3 | 21.6 | 29.5 | 23.3 | 16.6 | 17.7 | 23.2 | 28.5 |
| Former smoker | 44.7 | 44.9 | 45.0 | 40.4 | 45.0 | 49.0 | 49.7 | 45.3 | 39.3 |
| Never smoking | 30.6 | 31.8 | 33.4 | 30.1 | 31.6 | 34.4 | 32.6 | 31.4 | 32.2 |
| Vigorously exercise*, % | |||||||||
| Never/rarely | 31.5 | 26.2 | 20.9 | 17.7 | 23.2 | 28.5 | 17.5 | 25.0 | 36.9 |
| 1–4 times/month | 26.2 | 26.6 | 26.2 | 28.1 | 27.3 | 23.1 | 23.5 | 27.0 | 27.4 |
| 2–4 times/week | 28.4 | 31.9 | 34.9 | 27.4 | 31.9 | 36.4 | 38.4 | 33.2 | 24.5 |
| ≥5 times/week | 13.9 | 15.3 | 18.0 | 12.4 | 14.7 | 20.4 | 20.6 | 14.7 | 11.2 |
| Alcohol drinking, % | |||||||||
| Never | 35.1 | 37.3 | 38.9 | 39.2 | 36.1 | 36.8 | 30.9 | 36.6 | 44.6 |
| <1 times/week | 26.8 | 28.3 | 29.0 | 28.9 | 28.1 | 26.9 | 27.4 | 28.4 | 29.0 |
| ≥1 times/week | 38.1 | 34.4 | 32.1 | 31.9 | 35.7 | 36.3 | 41.7 | 35.0 | 26.4 |
| BMI, kg/m2 | 29.7 | 29.0 | 28.3 | 29.2 | 29.1 | 28.5 | 29.2 | 29.0 | 28.8 |
| Hypertension, % | 38.7 | 37.6 | 37.0 | 37.6 | 38.9 | 36.8 | 37.2 | 38.5 | 37.5 |
| Hypercholesterolaemia | 33.6 | 35.0 | 35.9 | 32.4 | 35.3 | 36.8 | 35.3 | 35.7 | 33.4 |
Unless otherwise indicated, data are expressed as means.
*Exercise vigorously enough to work up a sweat.
GED, General Educational Development; hPDI, healthful PDI; PDI, plant-based diet index; uPDI, unhealthful PDI.