Table 1 Baseline characteristics of colorectal cancer cases and their matched referents, and tumour characteristics of cases.

	Cases		Referents		p Value*
	No	Median or %	No	Median or %
Sex (M/F) (%)	94/132	41.6/58.4	184/253	42.1/57.9	0.899
Age (y)†	226	59.8 (50.3–60.2)	437	59.7 (50.2–60.2)	0.661
Follow up time (y)†	226	4.2 (2.4–6.7)
Body mass index (kg/m2)†	182	26.1 (23.5–29.0)	350	25.9 (23.8–28.3)	0.617
P‐Folate (nmol/l)†	221	8.1 (6.2–10.3)	432	7.8 (5.8–11.1)	0.704
P‐Homocysteine (μmol/l)†	226	11.7 (10.0–13.8)	436	11.4 (9.6–13.8)	0.312
Current smoker (%)	218	38 (17.4)	424	90 (21.2)	0.254
Tumour site (%)
Right colon	72	31.9
Left colon	70	31.0
Rectum	84	37.2
Dukes' stage‡ (%)
A	41	18.4
B	81	36.3
C	66	29.6
D	35	15.7

*Mann‐Whitney or χ² test.

†Median (25th–75th percentile).

‡Dukes' stage could not be determined for three cases with only biopsy tissue available.