UNC researchers enrolled 1,000 healthy patients from 35 UNC Hospital-affiliated family practice clinics across North Carolina on January 1, 2008.

Study participants completed a baseline demographics questionnaire and answered a standardized set of questions regarding food insecurity. The exposure of interest in this study is existing food insecurity at baseline. The outcome is a diabetes diagnosis recorded at UNC hospitals family practice clinics during study follow-up (between January 2, 2008, and December 31, 2017). The study closed on December 31, 2017.

Diabetes diagnosis dates were determined from patient medical charts. All patients were free of diabetes upon enrollment and had no history of prior diabetes diagnosis. Only individuals between 18 and 78 years of age on January 1, 2008, were eligible to participate.

On the second day of your new job as data analyst at the State Health Department, you've been asked to conduct a descriptive analysis of the cohort, and evaluate if there is an increased risk of diabetes among those experiencing food insecurity in this population-based cohort.

Briefly describe the cohort study participants.