TABLE 1
FROM:
Cancer incidence in British vegetarians
T J Key, P N Appleby, E A Spencer, R C Travis, N E Allen, M Thorogood and J I Mann
BACK TO ARTICLETable 1. Baseline characteristics by gender and diet group
| Men | Women | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristica | Meat eater | Fish eater | Vegetarian | Meat eater | Fish eater | Vegetarian |
| Number of participants | 8451 | 1631 | 5489 | 23952 | 6931 | 15112 |
| Age at recruitment (years; %) | ||||||
| 20–29 | 12.6 | 15.9 | 24.4 | 11.5 | 22.3 | 34.4 |
| 30–39 | 19.3 | 30.5 | 33.2 | 18.0 | 31.4 | 29.8 |
| 40–49 | 21.2 | 26.2 | 20.6 | 27.3 | 23.0 | 18.6 |
| 50–59 | 20.5 | 13.1 | 9.8 | 24.7 | 13.5 | 9.1 |
| 60–69 | 19.0 | 9.4 | 6.8 | 13.4 | 6.7 | 5.0 |
| 70–79 | 6.4 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 2.6 | 2.2 |
| 80–89 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| Mean (s.d.) | 48.2 (14.9) | 42.9 (13.6) | 40.2 (14.2) | 47.1 (13.5) | 40.5 (13.0) | 37.4 (13.4) |
| Smoking (%) | ||||||
| Never smoker | 45.3 | 54.0 | 55.9 | 60.2 | 60.3 | 64.3 |
| Former smoker | 35.6 | 30.8 | 30.8 | 27.1 | 29.4 | 25.1 |
| Light smokerb | 11.7 | 11.5 | 9.1 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.2 |
| Heavy smokerb | 7.3 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 5.7 | 3.3 | 3.5 |
| Body mass index (kg m -2; %) | ||||||
| <20.0 | 5.3 | 9.0 | 13.1 | 10.5 | 17.8 | 21.5 |
| 20.0–22.4 | 22.2 | 33.5 | 34.3 | 29.2 | 37.6 | 37.0 |
| 22.5–24.9 | 33.0 | 31.9 | 29.1 | 26.4 | 23.6 | 22.1 |
| 25.0–27.4 | 22.4 | 14.9 | 13.4 | 15.6 | 10.1 | 8.9 |
 27.5 | 14.6 | 7.4 | 6.9 | 15.7 | 7.7 | 7.0 |
| Unknown | 2.4 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 3.5 |
| Mean (s.d.) | 24.5 (3.3) | 23.3 (3.1) | 23.0 (3.1) | 24.1 (4.1) | 22.7 (3.4) | 22.4 (3.4) |
| Alcohol consumption (g per day; %) | ||||||
| <1 | 10.4 | 12.8 | 23.2 | 17.9 | 17.2 | 25.2 |
| 1–7 | 28.9 | 28.1 | 28.8 | 46.2 | 42.9 | 41.8 |
| 8–15 | 25.4 | 24.9 | 21.3 | 22.7 | 24.7 | 20.9 |
| 16 | 33.7 | 31.8 | 24.9 | 11.2 | 13.4 | 10.8 |
| Unknown | 1.6 | 2.5 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 1.3 |
| Mean (s.d.) | 15.2 (16.2) | 15.1 (16.8) | 12.3 (16.3) | 7.5 (9.3) | 8.3 (10.0) | 7.0 (9.5) |
| Physical activity level (%) | ||||||
| Low | 62.7 | 53.9 | 54.6 | 65.5 | 57.3 | 60.1 |
| High | 30.6 | 38.9 | 39.4 | 23.3 | 32.0 | 31.1 |
| Unknown | 6.7 | 7.2 | 5.9 | 11.2 | 10.7 | 8.9 |
| Parity (%) | ||||||
| Nulliparous | — | — | — | 27.3 | 47.2 | 57.3 |
| 1–2 | — | — | — | 48.5 | 37.9 | 31.3 |
| >2 | — | — | — | 23.2 | 13.9 | 9.9 |
| Unknown | — | — | — | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.5 |
| Ever used oral contraceptives (%) | ||||||
| No | — | — | — | 30.3 | 21.8 | 25.3 |
| Yes | — | — | — | 68.5 | 77.7 | 74.1 |
| Unknown | — | — | — | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.6 |
a Characteristics of the 2842 participants who contributed follow-up from both studies are those at the time of recruitment to the Oxford Vegetarian Study.
b Heavy smokers were participants who smoked 
15 cigarettes per day; light smokers were all other current smokers including pipe or cigar smokers.
