Baseline characteristics^* of the study participants in the current analysis in comparison with the rest of Nurses' Health Study participants, 1990.

Abbreviations: NHS, the Nurses' Health Study; BMI, body mass index; HRT, hormone replacement therapy; AHEI, alternate healthy eating index. *Values were age-adjusted mean±SE for continuous variables or age-adjusted proportion for categorical variables, except age per se. †The same exclusion criteria were applied to the rest NHS participants. Therefore, this group was primarily consisted of participants who responded to 1990 FFQ. ‡Excluded by two reasons, i.e., missing values of low-risk factors (83.2%) due to non-response to 1988 or 1990 follow-up questionnaires and development of prevalent chronic diseases at baseline (16.8%). §Assessed by 1988 questionnaire. Moderate physical activities included walking at a brisk (3.0–3.9 MPH) or very brisk (≥4.0 MPH) pace. Vigorous physical activities included jogging (≥10 min/mile), running (<10 min/mile), bicycling, lap swimming, tennis, and calisthenics/aerobics/aerobic dance/rowing machine. All other variables were assessed using the 1990 questionnaire, which was administered primarily during blood collection.