Table 1. Characteristics of women included in this analysis, and of follow-up, by selected reproductive factor categories.

	All women	Age at menarche		Age at menopausea		Parity
Number of women	1 319 409	⩽13 Years 806 948	14+ Years 485 230	<50 Years 168 875	50+ Years 236 050	Nulliparous 142 622	Parous 1 174 497
Characteristics at recruitment
Age, years (mean (s.d.))	56.2 (4.9)	55.9 (4.8)	56.6 (4.9)	57.6 (5.1)	58.6 (4.4)	56.2 (5.1)	56.1 (4.8)
Socioeconomic status, lowest quintile (%)	19.9	18.5	22.0	24.1	18.4	17.9	20.1
Current smoker (%)	20.5	19.5	22.2	26.8	15.1	17.4	20.9
Alcohol 14+ units per week (%)	6.2	6.3	6.1	5.0	5.0	8.5	5.9
Body mass index >30 kg m−2 (%)	18.0	20.2	14.1	18.2	19.1	16.4	18.2
Strenuous exercise >1/week (%)	20.9	21.3	20.3	18.9	21.1	22.1	20.8
Hormone therapy (HT), current use (%)	33.5	33.5	33.4	N/A	N/A	31.7	33.7
Oral contraceptives, ever use (%)	59.3	59.9	58.5	49.9	44.4	45.2	61.1
Nulliparous (%)	10.8	11.2	10.0	13.6	11.6	100	0
Parity (mean (s.d.), in parous women)	2.4 (1.1)	2.4 (1.0)	2.4 (1.1)	2.4 (1.1)	2.4 (1.1)	N/A	2.4 (1.1)
Ever breastfed (%, in parous women)	67.8	68.1	67.5	65.8	70.6	N/A	67.8
Follow-up
Person years (millions)	11.9	7.3	4.4	1.5	2.1	1.3	10.6
Incident cancers (n)
Oesophagus	1186	720	433	258	247	163	1021
Oesophagus, squamous cell	578	324	238	144	101	97	480
Oesophagus, adenocarcinoma	399	272	117	74	96	36	362
Stomach	1194	701	465	236	239	125	1067
Adenocarcinoma, gastric cardia	283	176	97	60	48	29	253
Adenocarcinoma, non-cardia	249	150	92	47	55	28	219

Abbreviation: N/A=not applicable.

^aRestricted to women with known age at menopause who have never used HT (see Materials and Methods).