Comparison of mortality hazard ratios associated with health behaviours in Canada and the United States: a population-based linked health survey study

Table 1 Health behaviour risk factor definitions^a

Health Behaviour	Definition
Smoking
Heavy smoker	Current smoker, > 20 cigarettes/day
Light smoker	Current smoker, < 20 cigarettes/day
Former smoker	Former smoker
Never smoker	Never smoker
Alcohol
Heavy drinker	> 21 drinks/week (males) or > 14 drinks/week (females); or binge drinks (5+ drinks on a single occasion) at least once a week
Moderate drinker	3 to 21 drinks/week (male) or 2 to 14 drinks/week (females)
Light or non-drinker	< 3 drinks/week (males) or < 2 drinks/week (females)
Physical Activity	Average daily metabolic equivalent of task derived from the previous three months of self-reported leisure physical activity (maximum 10)
Diet Score^b
Fruit and vegetable intake	1 point per daily frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption, excluding fruit juice (maximum 8 points)
High potato intake	- 2 points if daily potato consumption > 7 (males) or > 5 (females) a week
High fruit juice intake	- 2 points per daily frequency of fruit juice consumption greater than once a day (maximum −10 points)

^a Reference group indicated by italics
^b Diet score = 2 baseline points + summation of points from diet attributes (negative overall scores recoded to 0, resulting in a range from 0 to 10)

ISSN: 1471-2458