Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the study population

 male

3061 (58.6)

1927 (54.1)

1134 (68.5)

<0.001

2658 (57.4)

403 (68.7)

<0.001

 female

2160 (41.4)

1638 (45.9)

522 (31.5)

1976 (42.6)

184 (31.3)

 Age (mean (SD))

59.41 (11.15)

58.63 (11.17)

61.10 (10.93)

<0.001

59.44 (11.07)

59.21 (11.76)

0.63

 Age, ≥65 years (%)

1767 (33.8)

1102 (30.9)

665 (40.2)

<0.001

1571 (33.9)

196 (33.4)

0.841

 BMI (mean (SD))

22.57 (3.51)

22.81 (3.52)

22.07 (3.44)

0.006

22.51 (3.47)

23.09 (3.77)

<0.001

 <18.5

616 (11.8)

370 (10.4)

246 (14.9)

0.002

557 (12.0)

59 (10.1)

0.002

 18.5-23.9

2899 (55.5)

1942 (54.5)

957 (57.8)

2604 (56.2)

295 (50.3)

 24-27.9

1162 (22.3)

840 (23.6)

322 (19.4)

1005 (21.7)

157 (26.7)

 ≥28

544 (10.4)

413 (11.6)

131 (7.9)

468 (10.1)

76 (12.9)

 Diabetes, yes (%)

530 (10.2)

321 (9.0)

209 (12.6)

<0.001

461 (9.9)

69 (11.8)

0.196

 Hypertension, yes (%)

1085 (20.8)

685 (19.2)

400 (24.2)

<0.001

935 (20.2)

150 (25.6)

0.003

 Coronary heart disease, yes (%)

268 (5.1)

180 (5.0)

88 (5.3)

0.737

237 (5.1)

31 (5.3)

0.942

 Smoking, yes (%)

2431 (46.6)

1501 (42.1)

930 (56.2)

<0.001

2112 (45.6)

319 (54.3)

<0.001

 Alcohol, yes (%)

1167 (22.4)

743 (20.8)

424 (25.6)

<0.001

1018 (22.0)

149 (25.4)

0.069

 Lung cancer

1776 (34.0)

1103 (30.9)

673 (40.6)

<0.001

1606 (34.7)

170 (29.0)

<0.001

 Gastric cancer

766 (14.7)

561 (15.7)

205 (12.4)

689 (14.9)

77 (13.1)

 Esophageal cancer

313 (6.0)

194 (5.4)

119 (7.2)

273 (5.9)

40 (6.8)

 Colorectal cancer

917 (17.6)

679 (19.0)

238 (14.4)

785 (16.9)

132 (22.5)

 Other digestive cancers

394 (7.5)

238 (6.7)

156 (9.4)

342 (7.4)

52 (8.9)

 Breast cancer

464 (8.9)

412 (11.6)

52 (3.1)

437 (9.4)

27 (4.6)

 Female reproductive cancer

177 (3.4)

114 (3.2)

63 (3.8)

159 (3.4)

18 (3.1)

 Urological cancer

132 (2.5)

74 (2.1)

58 (3.5)

112 (2.4)

20 (3.4)

 Nasopharyngeal cancer

126 (2.4)

101 (2.8)

25 (1.5)

108 (2.3)

18 (3.1)

 Other cancer

156 (3.0)

89 (2.5)

67 (4.0)

123 (2.7)

33 (5.6)

 I

441 (8.4)

367 (10.3)

74 (4.5)

<0.001

416 (9.0)

25 (4.3)

<0.001

 II

943 (18.1)

760 (21.3)

183 (11.1)

872 (18.8)

71 (12.1)

 III

1413 (27.1)

1042 (29.2)

371 (22.4)

1268 (27.4)

145 (24.7)

 IV

2424 (46.4)

1396 (39.2)

1028 (62.1)

2078 (44.8)

346 (58.9)

 Surgery, yes (%)

2596 (49.7)

1980 (55.5)

616 (37.2)

<0.001

2351 (50.7)

245 (41.7)

<0.001

 Radiotherapy, yes (%)

581 (11.1)

399 (11.2)

182 (11.0)

0.989

507 (10.9)

74 (12.6)

0.255

 Chemotherapy, yes (%)

3312 (63.4)

2281 (64.0)

1031 (62.3)

0.202

2977 (64.2)

335 (57.1)

0.001

 Total protein, g/L (mean (SD))

68.63 (6.75)

69.01 (6.31)

67.83 (7.55)

<0.001

68.58 (6.68)

69.03 (7.28)

0.126

 Albumin, g/L (mean (SD))

39.04 (5.01)

40.32 (4.42)

36.31 (5.09)

<0.001

39.22 (4.92)

37.64 (5.48)

<0.001

 CRP, mg/L (median (IQR))

3.71 (13.20)

3.10 (2.60)

30.80 (46.18)

<0.001

3.44 (10.62)

12.20 (42.46)

<0.001

 TC, mmol/L (mean (SD))

4.60 (1.11)

4.68 (1.07)

4.42 (1.19)

<0.001

4.50 (1.02)

5.39 (1.44)

<0.001

 Blood glucose, mmol/L (mean (SD))

5.78 (1.76)

5.69 (1.61)

5.97 (2.04)

<0.001

5.73 (1.70)

6.15 (2.14)

<0.001

 TG, mmol/L (mean (SD))

1.50 (1.49)

1.53 (1.22)

1.43 (1.94)

0.018

1.45 (1.54)

1.85 (0.99)

<0.001

 HDL-c, mmol/L (mean (SD))

1.22 (0.37)

1.28 (0.33)

1.11 (0.43)

<0.001

1.27 (0.37)

0.89 (0.25)

<0.001

 LDL-c, mmol/L (mean (SD))

2.82 (0.88)

2.82 (0.83)

2.81 (0.99)

0.617

2.69 (0.76)

3.84 (1.13)

<0.001

 LHR (mean (SD))

2.49 (1.30)

2.34 (0.98)

2.81 (1.75)

<0.001

2.22 (0.65)

4.67 (2.51)

<0.001

 TC/HDL-c (mean (SD))

4.01 (1.60)

3.85 (1.26)

4.35 (2.12)

<0.001

3.69 (0.87)

6.55 (3.10)

<0.001

 TG/HDL-c (mean (SD))

1.38 (1.43)

1.34 (1.27)

1.47 (1.72)

0.002

1.25 (1.24)

2.41 (2.19)

<0.001

 TyG (mean (SD))

3.88 (0.29)

3.89 (0.29)

3.86 (0.29)

0.012

7.03 (0.58)

7.36 (0.58)

<0.001

 KPS (mean (SD))

85.40 (12.35)

87.31 (10.37)

81.27 (15.00)

<0.001

85.97 (11.87)

80.87 (14.92)

<0.001

 KPS, <60 (%)

307 (5.9)

123 (3.5)

184 (11.1)

<0.001

242 (5.2)

65 (11.1)

<0.001

 Nutritional intervention, yes (%)

1000 (19.2)

610 (17.1)

390 (23.6)

<0.001

865 (18.7)

135 (23.0)

0.014