Table 1 Background characteristics of the participants.

	Police officers		Fire‐fighters
	Exposed	Reference	Exposed	Reference
n	834	634	334	194
Age in years (SD)	44.0 (6.2)	44.8 (7.0)	51.4 (5.9)	38.8 (9.1)
Level of education (%)
Low	22.0	20.9	63.4	52.7
Intermediate	55.8	54.3	29.8	36.6
High	22.2	24.8	6.8	10.8
Alcohol consumption* (%)
None	11.4	8.2	4.2	12.4
Low to moderate	74.3	75.7	72.8	70.6
Heavy	14.3	16.1	23.1	17.0
Smoking habits (%)
None	33.1	27.9	32.0	44.8
Former smoker	31.7	38.0	35.0	29.4
Current smoker	35.3	34.1	32.9	25.8
Male gender (%)	88.5	84.9	100	100

SD, standard deviation.

*Alcohol consumption was assessed according to the Garretsen index.⁵⁰