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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Epidemiol Community Health. 2013 Nov 20;68(2):151–158. doi: 10.1136/jech-2013-202843

Sample Characteristics for Men and Women (N = 12,020).

Men (N = 5,891) Women (N = 6,129)
N (mean) % (SD) N (mean) % (SD)
Cognition Z-Score (0.00) (0.63) (0.00) (0.65)
Number of Recessions
 At Ages 25-34 (1.31) (1.27) (1.32) (1.28)
 At Ages 35-44 (1.29) (1.15) (1.33) (1.17)
 At Ages 45-49 (0.73) (1.31) (0.77) (1.36)
Age (63.24) (6.04) (62.68) (5.95)
born before World War II (1945) 2,822 47.90 2,711 44.23
1st job International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO)
 Low skill blue 1,312 22.27 966 15.76
 High skilled blue collar 1,100 18.67 2,884 47.05
 Low skilled white collar 1,868 31.71 617 10.07
 High skilled white collar 1,611 27.35 1,662 27.12
Educational level
 Primary or less 2,170 36.84 2,600 42.42
 Secondary education 1,982 33.64 1,908 31.13
 Post-secondary education 1,739 29.52 1,621 26.45
Childhood health
(Very-) bad self-rated health as child (ref.: fair or (very-) good 431 7.32 544 8.88
 1+ infectious disease during childhood 4,925 83.60 5,441 88.77
 1+ physical injury during childhood 1,584 26.89 1,771 28.90
 Mental condition during childhood 73 1.24 115 1.88
No. of books at home during childhood
 None or very few (0-10) 2,449 41.57 2,165 35.33
 Enough to fill one shelf (11-25) 1,311 22.24 1,467 23.93
 Enough to fill one bookcase (26-100) 1,305 22.16 1,538 25.09
 Enough to fill two bookcases (101-200) 404 6.86 479 7.81
 Enough to fill two or more bookcases (more than 200) 422 7.16 481 7.84
Main occupation of the breadwinner during childhood
 Low skilled blue collar 1,562 26.50 1,680 27.41
 High skilled blue collar 2,701 45.87 2,617 42.70
 Low skilled white collar 845 14.34 901 14.70
 High skilled white collar 784 13.30 931 15.18
Self-reported childhood math skills compared to peers
 Much better 782 13.28 591 9.65
 Better 1,661 28.20 1,412 23.03
 About the same 2,733 46.40 3,217 52.49
 Worse 595 10.12 748 12.20
 Much worse 119 2.01 161 2.63
Self-reported childhood language skills compared to peers
 Much better 536 9.10 794 12.96
 Better 1,384 23.50 1,875 30.59
 About the same 2,928 49.71 2,858 46.64
 Worse 913 15.49 525 8.56
 Much worse 129 2.19 77 1.26