Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the CARLA study population (2002-2006)

Age (yrs)

63.7

(9.9)

64.9

(10.2)

Heart rate

71.5

(10.6)

71.34

(12.4)

LDL/HDL-Quotient

2.4

(0.9)

2.8

(1.0)

Body mass index (kg/m²)

28.5

(5.4)

28.5

(4.1)

Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)

0.9

(0.1)

1.0

(0.1)

Smoking:

   Current

17.1%

27.6%

   Past

18.1%

46.9%

   Never

64.8%

245

25.5%

   Packyears of tobacco products

4.3

(9.0)

15.6

(16.6)

   Currently smoked no. of tobacco products/day

1.9

(5.4)

3.8

(8.8)

Alcohol consumption % >20 (female)/30 (male) g/day

4.5%

22.5%

   Alcohol g/day

4.1

(7.1)

17.5

(18.67)

Sports: % active (any sports)

42.3%

31.3%

   Sport-index

2.4

(0.7)

2.4

(0.7)

   Leisure-time-index

3.1

(0.6)

3.1

(0.6)

   MET-hours per week¹

9.6

(7.6)

13.1

(10.4)

Dietary pattern index

16.4

(3.2)

14.5

(3.2)

Education (years of training):

   <= 10 years

13.6%

4.2%

   11-13 years

47.0%

42.0%

   14-17 years

29.1%

32.7%

   >= 18 years

10.2%

21.1%

Drug use:

   Betablockers

33.2%

27.6%

   ACE-Inhibitors

28.5%

30.2%

Disease prevalence:

   Myocardial infarction (MI)²

1.9%

7.6%

   Stroke

2.8%

3.5%

   Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)³

5.2%

12.7%

   Hypertension⁴

71.2%

78.7%

   Diabetes mellitus⁵

13.1%

15.9%