Table 1 Characteristics of men participating in the Zutphen Study by year of measurement*

	Cohort	1960	1965	1970	1985	1990	1995	2000
No. of participants†	1960	872	721	615	349	231	114	51
	1985				476	306	161	68
Cumulative no of deaths
All causes		–	40	103	412	645	889	1130
Total cardiovascular		–	20	61	261	376	514	628
Coronary heart disease		–	13	40	176	231	297	348
Cerebrovascular		–	3	10	49	78	113	139
Age (years)‡		49±6	54±5	59±5	71±5	75±5	80±4	83±3
Body mass index (kg/m²)		24.1±2.7	24.9±2.7	25.2±2.8	25.5±3.1	25.5±3.2	25.3±3.4	26.0±3.3
Overall smoking (%)§
Never and long-term ex		6	6	9	26	50	60	72
Recent-ex		6	11	15	31	17	16	14
Cigarettes		74	61	53	30	23	18	6
Cigars or pipes		14	21	23	13	10	6	8
Energy without alcohol (kcal)		3082±673	2920±674	2539±539	2146±506	2029±458	2029±468	1991±457
Alcohol intake (g/day)¶	1960	8±13	10±13	12±13	18±19	14±15	14±14	13±11
	1985	–	–	–	18±17	14±14	13±15	14±16
Alcohol users (%)	1960	45	62	72	75	78	80	86
	1985	–	–	–	75	72	78	85
Beer users (%)	1960	38	35	42	24	22	22	37
	1985	–	–	–	24	25	25	29
Wine users (%)	1960	2	5	6	20	26	29	39
	1985	–	–	–	25	31	38	47
Spirits users (%)	1960	15	42	52	55	55	58	61
	1985	–	–	–	55	49	49	54

*Numbers represent means ± standard deviation, unless indicated otherwise.
†In every measurement round, the participants who took part in both physical and dietary examinations were selected for the analyses.
‡Age is defined as age on 31 December in the year preceding the examination.
§Never and long-term ex-smokers are defined as men who never smoked or stopped smoking ⩾10 years ago; recent ex-smokers are defined as men who stopped smoking <10 years ago.
¶Average alcohol intake was calculated among alcohol users.