Table 1– Baseline characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients overall and by dietary intervention

	Overall	IG	CG	p-value
Subjects n	120	60	60
Males/females n	105/15	54/6	51/9	0.58
Age yrs	68.1±1.40	66.1±1.46	70.2±1.15	0.07
BMI kg·m⁻²	28.60±0.41	28.20±0.60	29.02±0.66	0.35
Current smoker	37 (30.8)	17 (28.3)	20 (33.3)	0.69
Ex-smoker	76 (63.3)	39 (65.0)	37 (61.6)	0.84
Smoking pack-yrs	68±3.79	62.4±5.03	73.6±5.62	0.14
Consumption score
Vegetable	1.22±0.3	1.26±0.4	1.18±0.4	0.30
Fresh fruit/juice	1.42±0.4	1.22±0.4	1.48±0.5	0.70
Meat	1.87±0.2	1.90±0.3	1.87±0.4	0.70
Fish	1.05±0.2	1.11±0.3	1.02±0.4	0.60
Alcohol	1.61±0.3	1.30±0.3	1.18±0.3	0.17
Chronic cough	89 (74)	45 (75)	44 (72)	0.61
Chronic sputum	86 (71)	39 (65)	47 (78)	0.39
Chronic dyspnoea	52 (56)	28 (46)	24 (40)	0.75
FEV₁ L	1.82±0.06	1.93±0.10	1.71±0.07	0.09
FEV₁ % pred	64.28±1.58	64.39±2.32	64.17±2.19	0.94
FVC L	2.75±0.09	2.90±0.14	2.59±0.11	0.09
FVC % pred	74.64±1.66	75.71±2.47	73.50±2.22	0.52
FEV₁/FVC % pred	64.67±0.96	64.77±1.14	64.57±1.56	0.92
PEF L·min⁻¹	4.62±0.17	4.98±0.28	4.26±0.21	0.10
S_a,O₂ %	95.58±0.24	95.20±0.33	95.96±0.34	0.81
Charlson index	2.58±0.12	2.39±0.16	2.77±0.17	0.11
Arthritis	1 (0.8)	0 (0.0)	1 (1.7)	1
Cardiac failure	25 (20.8)	10 (16.7)	15 (25.0)	0.36
Coronary disease	33 (27.5)	16 (26.7)	17 (28.3)	1
Diabetes	22 (18.3)	8 (13.3)	14 (23.3)	0.23
Diseases of the liver	2 (1.7)	0 (0.0)	2 (3.3)	0.49
Hypertension	69 (57.5)	32 (53.3)	37 (61.7)	0.46
Nephropathy	3 (2.7)	2 (1.7)	1 (3.3)	1
Stroke	8 (6.7)	4 (6.7)	4 (6.7)	1

Data are presented as mean±sem or n (%), unless otherwise indicated. The Mann–Whitney test or Fisher's exact test was used as appropriate for comparisons between groups. IG: intervention group; CG: control group; BMI: body mass index; FEV₁: forced expiratory volume in 1 s; % pred: % predicted; FVC: forced vital capacity; PEF: peak expiratory flow; S_a,O₂: arterial oxygen saturation.