Table 1.

Weighted cross-sectional means and percentages by cycle and sex/gender for socioeconomic position, social structure, behaviour and psychosocial measures among working-aged Canadian women and men in the National Population Health Survey, 1994–2003.

	Women			Men
Survey Cycle	94/95	00/01	02/03	94/95	00/01	02/03
Number of Observations	1543	1543	1543	1979	1979	1979
SEP Measures
Income Adequacy (%)
Middle/High (ref)	90.2	96.1	96.4	87.5	92.3	93.3
Low	9.8	3.9	3.6	12.5	7.7	6.7
Education (%)
< Secondary School (ref)	14.4	12.9	12.7	12.8	11.3	11.1
Secondary School Graduate	40.5	40.6	41.0	46.3	44.8	44.1
Post-secondary Graduate	45.1	46.5	46.3	40.9	43.9	44.8
Employment (%)
Inactive (ref)	4.5	5.0	6.8	21.0	16.1	16.8
Employed	95.5	95.0	93.2	79.0	83.9	83.2
Social Structure Measures
Age	38.7	44.7	46.6	38.5	44.6	46.5
Marital Status (%)
Unmarried (ref)	22.9	21.5	22.3	24.1	24.2	24.5
Married/cohabiting	77.1	78.5	77.7	75.9	75.8	75.5
Household Size	3.2	3.1	3.1	3.3	3.2	3.1
Social Support	3.7	2.2	2.2	3.8	2.1	2.2
Behavioural Measures
Smoking (pack-years)	10.3	11.5	11.6	6.8	7.8	8.0
Never Smoked (%)
Current/former smoker (ref)	50.8	55.4	56.1	47.8	50.5	51.0
Never smoked	49.2	44.6	43.9	52.2	49.5	49.0
Physical Activity Index (%)
Active (ref)	17.4	18.0	23.6	15.2	16.0	20.8
Moderate	22.4	25.5	28.5	21.1	25.6	30.7
Inactive	60.2	56.5	47.9	63.7	58.4	48.5
Body Mass Index (%)
Underweight	0.4	0.7	0.7	2.7	1.5	1.8
Normal weight (ref)	39.1	30.4	28.5	58.4	50.7	46.6
Overweight	47.5	51.0	50.4	24.9	29.2	32.6
Obese	13.0	17.9	20.4	14.0	18.6	19.0
Psychosocial Measures
Chronic Stress Index	2.9	2.4	2.5	3.5	2.9	3.0
Mastery	20.5	20.3	19.9	19.9	20.0	19.5