Vegetarian Diet and Cardiometabolic Risk among Asian Indians in the United States

Table 2

Association of vegetarian diet to demographic and lifestyle characteristics.

Variables	Variables	Vegetarian diet		Adjusted odds ratio (95% CI)	value
		Yes	No
Gender	Male	296 (56.4%)	229 (43.6%)	0.42 (0.25, 0.70)	0.001
	Female	257 (72.0%)	100 (28.0%)
Age	<50 years	270 (60.8%)	174 (39.2%)	0.94 (0.56, 1.59)	0.822
	≥50 years	278 (65.1%)	149 (34.9%)
Access to care	No	110 (77.5%)	32 (22.5%)	1.36 (0.69, 2.76)	0.369
	Yes	393 (60.0%)	262 (40.0%)
Years lived in the US	<10 years	157 (63.1%)	92 (36.9%)	1.02 (0.99, 1.04)	0.211
	≥10 years	350 (62.1%)	214 (37.9%)
Education	<high school	73 (81.1%)	17 (18.9%)	0.42 (0.15, 1.15)	0.091
	College degree or higher	467 (60.5%)	305 (39.5%)
Marital status	Not currently married	47 (55.3%)	38 (44.7%)	1.57 (0.72, 3.44)	0.255
	Currently married	501 (63.3%)	290 (36.7%)
Physical activity^†	Sedentary	182 (65.7%)	95 (34.3%)	0.80 (0.53, 1.21)	0.31
	Active	355 (60.5%)	232 (39.5%)
Spiritual^‡	No	44 (88.0%)	6 (12.0%)	0.95 (0.64, 1.39)	0.78
	Yes	499 (52.6%)	322 (47.4%)
Feel connected with some force greater than yourself?	Less spiritual	175 (32.2%)	122 (37.2%)	0.68 (0.43, 1.06)	0.090
	Spiritual	368 (67.8%)	206 (62.8%)
English proficiency^††	Not very well	86 (87.8%)	12 (12.2%)	2.50 (0.74, 8.41)	0.141
	Well/pretty well	460 (59.4%)	315 (40.0%)
Self-rated health^¶¶	Fair/poor	69 (53.5%)	60 (46.5%)	2.01 (1.11, 3.62)	0.021
	Good–excellent	465 (63.7%)	265 (36.3%)
Income^‡‡	<$100,000	313 (65.2%)	167 (34.8%)	1.18 (0.76, 1.86)	0.463
	≥$100,000	129 (52.7%)	116 (47.3%)
Tobacco use^§§	Never	511 (63.8%)	290 (36.2%)	2.11 (0.91, 4.88)	0.082
	Sometimes/always	32 (47.1%)	36 (52.9%)
Diet changed in the US	No	294 (62.7%)	112 (37.3%)	0.49 (0.32, 0.77)	0.002
	Yes	224 (61.6%)	202 (38.4%)
Healthy dietary habits (total)	Never/sometimes	48 (58.5%)	34 (41.5%)	1.69 (0.58, 4.90)	0.338
	Often/always	490 (62.6%)	293 (37.4%)
Choose diet low in fat & saturated fat	Never/sometimes	301 (60.0%)	201 (40.0%)	0.98 (0.73, 1.31)	0.869
	Often/always	176 (66.7%)	88 (33.3%)
Limit use of sugar	Never/sometimes	320 (62.6%)	195 (37.4%)	1.04 (0.89, 1.21)	0.627
	Often/always	155 (65.7%)	81 (34.3%)
Consume 3–5 servings of vegetables per day	Never/sometimes	242 (57.6%)	178 (42.4%)	1.07 (0.78, 1.47)	0.662
	Often/always	272 (67.3%)	132 (32.7%)
Consume 2–4 servings of fruits per day	Never/sometimes	308 (61.5%)	193 (38.5%)	0.83 (0.62, 1.10)	0.197
	Often/always	185 (64.2%)	103 (35.8%)
Read food labels	Never/sometimes	241 (57.9%)	175 (42.1%)	1.37 (1.07, 1.75)	0.011
	Often/always	216 (69.0%)	97 (31.0%)

^†Physical activity is a subscale of the health promotion lifestyle profile scale (summation of 9 items; range 0 (never) to 3 (always), higher scores indicate a more physically active lifestyle reported by respondents); ^‡Spirituality is a subscale of the health promotion lifestyle profile scale (summation of 9 items; range 0 (never) to 3 (always), higher scores indicate higher levels of spirituality reported by respondents). Respondents were categorized “physically active” if they responded often or routinely and “physically not active” if responses were never or sometimes. Similarly, respondents were grouped as spiritual if they responded often or routinely for the nine questions and “not spiritual” if responses were never or sometimes; ^††Proficiency in English is assessed by respondents who indicated that they can speak English very well or pretty well (1) or not very well/not at all (0). ^‡‡Income was recoded to <$100,000 (0) and ≥$100,000 (1). ^§§Tobacco users are respondents who indicated regular or sometimes usage of cigarettes, chewing tobacco (paan or beetle leaves), smokeless tobacco, and cigars (1) and nonusers (0). ^¶¶Current health status was self-reported physical health by respondents and recoded as excellent/very good/good (1) and fair/poor (0). Access to care indicates having health insurance (private, Medicaid, and Medicare) (1) or no health insurance (0). value is based on logistic regression analysis. Demographic characteristics of the participants have been presented in earlier studies [51].