Table 4 Early‐life indicators of occupation.

Indicator	Location, study design	Indicators of SEP measured	Criteria
Maternal grandfather's occupation	Australia, Longitudinal Mater—University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy and its Outcomes80	P	Validity: Father's occupation is a valid marker of socioeconomic and environmental circumstances in childhood.81,82,83Information about past occupation could be as important as current occupation given that some occupations are less healthy than others87Relevance: Culturally and historically specific, cohort and period effects likely to exist.51 Cannot readily be used for groups outside the recognised labour force10Reliability:Potentially affected by recall bias Father's occupation was recalled accurately, reliably and by most respondents Changing coding criteria need to be taken into account for consistent measurement over timeDeconstruction: Not applicable
Maternal and paternal grandfather's occupation	Danish 1958 cohort of men51	P
Father's occupation	Australia, Longitudinal Mater—University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy and its Outcomes80	P
	Britain, Longitudinal Whitehall Study35	R
	Danish 1958 cohort of men51	P
	Finland, Helsinki University Central Hospital Cohort84	P
	Finland Valmet cohort85	R
	The Netherlands, Longitudinal Study of Socio‐Economic Health Differences58	R
	Scotland, Glasgow Alumni Cohort86	R
	Longitudinal West of Scotland Collaborative Study33,37,88,89,90,91,92,93	R
	Spain, Cross‐sectional study94	R
	Sweden, Cross‐sectional Malmö Diet and Cancer Study82	R
	Sweden, Cross‐sectional Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Programme28	R
	USA, Longitudinal Alameda County Study53	R
	USA, Longitudinal Nurses' Health Study95	P
	USA, Cross‐sectional National Survey of Midlife Development54	R
	USA, Longitudinal Normative Aging Study55	R
Father's longest held occupation	British Women's Heart and Health Study, cross‐sectional38,50,96,97,98,99	R
	British Regional Heart Study, longitudinal100	R
Father's occupation when participant born	Britain Newcastle Thousand Families Cohort Study101,102,103	P
Father's occupation when participant born and aged 7, 11 and 16 years	1958 British Birth Cohort52,77,104,105,106	P
Father's occupation when participant born and aged 3 and 6 years	New Zealand, Longitudinal Christchurch Health and Development Study107	P
Father's occupation when participant born	New Zealand, Longitudinal Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study108,109	P
Father's occupation when participant aged 4 years	1946 British Birth Cohort71,72,110,111,112	P
Father's occupation when participant aged 14 years	British Household Panel Survey, cross‐sectional113	R
Father's occupation when participant aged 16 years	USA, Longitudinal Nurses' Health Study95	R
Mother's occupation	USA, Cross‐sectional National Survey of Midlife Development54	R
Parents' occupation at age 15 years	Slovakia, Cross‐sectional Survey of Adolescents61	P
Parents' occupation when participant aged 5, 10 and 16 years	1970 British Birth Cohort77	P
Occupation of parents when participant born and aged 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15 and 26 years	New Zealand, Longitudinal Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study114	P
Parents' occupation when participant aged 10 years	Finland, Longitudinal Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study66,68,69,70,115	R
Parents' occupation when participant born and aged 7 years	USA, Longitudinal National Collaborative Perinatal Project59,60	P
Head of household's occupation when participant born	Sweden, Uppsala Birth Cohort Study116	P
Head of household's occupation when participant aged 5 and 10 years	Britain Newcastle Thousand Families Cohort Study101,102,103	P
Head of household's occupation when participant aged 15 years	USA National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men73	R
Head of household's occupation when participant aged 10–14 years	Finland, Longitudinal Census Data Study40,117	R
Whether mother worked outside the home	USA, National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men73	R
Father or mother unemployed when they wanted to be working	Britain, Longitudinal Whitehall Study35	R
Participant's occupation at labour force entry	Sweden, Cross‐sectional Stockholm Female Coronary Risk Study118	R
Participant's first occupation	West of Scotland, Longitudinal Collaborative Study37,90,91,93	R

P, prospectively; R, retrospectively; SEP, socioeconomic position.