Table 2 Characteristics of participants by trajectories of quintile of Chinese Healthy Eating Index over 10 years (1997–2006, n = 6398)

Initial age (year)

43.2 ± 12.7

44.4 ± 14.5

42.1 ± 12.8

42.5 ± 12.1

< 0.001

Old adults, ≥65 years (%)

5.7

10.9

5.2

4.6

< 0.001

Male (%)

48.5

49.4

48.0

49.5

0.81

Urban residence (%)

27.7

28.1

26.6

32.1

0.008

 Baseline

27.2 ± 37.7

27.2 ± 58.2

29.8 ± 29.6

31.4 ± 29.3

0.001

 Change

8.3 ± 39.7

10.9 ± 58.6

11.2 ± 29.7

11.4 ± 29.3

0.08

 Change from married to unmarried

5.4

5.9

4.4

4.3

< 0.001

 Remained unmarried

7.4

9.4

7.2

4.9

 Change from unmarried to married or remained married

87.3

84.7

88.4

90.8

 Remained not enough

45.5

46.6

44.9

40.3

0.008

 Change from enough to not

35.6

35.9

36.5

40.0

 Change from not to enough or remained enough

18.9

17.5

18.6

19.7

 Remained current smoker

30.0

29.8

29.6

28.8

0.43

 Change from current smoker to former smoker

10.3

9.3

8.2

8.6

 Remained not current smoker

59.8

60.9

62.3

62.6

Proper sleep duration (%)^d

75.6

65.5

71.8

76.6

< 0.001

Initial normal body mass index (%)

21.8

19.6

25.5

27.6

< 0.001

Weight change (kg)

0.8 ± 3.6

0.7 ± 2.1

0.6 ± 2.1

0.7 ± 2.1

0.34

 Never

66.3

69.5

67.6

65.4

0.04

 Incident during the 10-year period

14.5

14.8

16.1

15.6

 Diagnosed from the beginning

19.2

15.7

16.3

19.1

 Never

95.5

95.6

95.1

95.8

0.95

 Incident during the 10-year period

2.5

2.5

2.4

2.3

 Diagnosed from the beginning

2.0

1.9

2.4

1.9