The baseline characteristics in 2001 along with their correlations with the 2007 level and progression of intima-media thickness (IMT).

*The characteristics in 2001 were used as potential confounding risk factors in predictive models.
†Pearson correlation coefficient (r-value) was calculated using the risk factors collected in 2001.
‡Statistical significance (Bonferroni corrected p-value) is from the t-distribution with n-2 df (n = 1,027 in 2001 and n = 813 in 2007); NS, non-significant.