Table 2. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the two study populations, survivors and controls.

	Survivors ( n =835)		Controls ( n =1670)
	n	%	n	%	P -value a
Socio-demographic characteristics
Age (years)
20–25	373	44.7	746	44.7	n.a.b
26–30	285	34.1	570	34.1
31–35	177	21.2	354	21.2
Gender
Male	441	52.8	882	52.8	n.a.b
Female	394	47.2	788	47.2
Language
German	633	75.8	1266	75.8	n.a.b
French/Italian	202	24.2	404	24.2
Migration backgroundc
No	648	77.6	1296	77.6	nab
Yes	187	22.4	374	22.4
Civil status
Single, divorced or widowed	732	88.5	1284	76.9	<0.001
Married	95	11.5	385	23.1
Education
Compulsory schooling	70	8.0	69	4.1	<0.001
Vocational training	379	46.0	945	56.6
Higher secondaryd	304	36.4	449	26.9
University	63	7.5	200	12.0
Income
Unemployed	110	13.2	43	2.6	<0.001
0–3000 CHF	239	28.6	573	34.3
3001–6000 CHF	402	48.1	819	49.0
>6000 CHF	45	5.4	235	14.1
Number of children
None	708	84.8	1325	79.3	<0.001
One	63	7.5	169	10.1
Two or more	41	4.9	176	10.5
Body mass index (kg m2)
<25	606	72.6	1266	75.8	0.372
⩾25	203	24.3	388	23.2
Clinical characteristics
Age at diagnosis (years)
≤ 4	228	27.3
5–8	205	24.6
9–12	183	21.9
>12	219	26.2
Diagnosis
Leukaemia	310	37.1
Hodgkin lymphoma	73	8.7
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma	83	9.9
CNS tumours	101	12.1
Embryonal tumourse	127	15.2
Bone tumours and soft tissue sarcomas	87	10.4
Otherf	54	6.5
Therapy
Surgery only	81	9.7
Chemotherapy, but no radiotherapy	394	47.2
Any radiotherapy	257	30.8
BMT	95	11.4
Relapse
No	710	85.0
Yes	125	15.0

Abbreviations: CHF=Swiss Francs; CNS=central nervous system; n.a.=not applicable; BMT=bone marrow transplantation.

Numbers do not always sum up to the total because of missing values.

^aχ²-test.

^bPopulation matched for gender, age, language, region and migration background.

^cDoes not have a Swiss passport or has received the Swiss passport after date of birth or parents originate from another country.

^dHigher secondary education includes high school, teachers training colleges, technical colleges and higher vocational education.

^eIncludes neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, Wilms tumour, liver tumour and germ cell tumour.

^fIncludes epithelial neoplasms, malignant melanomas, unspecified malignant tumours and Langerhans cell histiocytosis.