Table 4.
Baseline characteristics in 1973–78 cohort ALSWH women based on highest achieved education † (n = 10 018)
| Highest achieved education † | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (21%) n = 2,087 ‡ | Intermediate (30%) n = 2,994 ‡ | High (49%) n = 4,937 ‡ | chi 2 /F statistic (P-value) | |
| Baseline characteristics | ||||
| Mean (Std Dev) | ||||
| Age (years) | 20.8 (1.5) | 20.8 (1.4) | 20.7 (1.5) | 9.23 (<0.0001) |
| Weight (kg) | 63.7 (13.1) | 63.6 (13.3) | 61.8 (11.1) | 23.6 (<0.0001) |
| Height (cm) | 165.4 (7.4) | 165.7 (7.3) | 166.4 (6.8) | 18.4 (<0.0001) |
| Age at birth of first child** | 25.3 (4.3) | 26.6 (4.1) | 29.1 (3.4) | 529.6 (<0.0001) |
| Percentage (%) | ||||
| BMI | * 44.3 (<0.0001) | |||
| Underweight (<18.5) | 9.2 | 9.1 | 9.4 | |
| Normal weight (18.5 -24.9) | 62.3 | 66.4 | 73.5 | |
| Overweight (25.0 – 29.9) | 18.9 | 16.5 | 13.3 | |
| Obese ( ≥30.0) | 9.6 | 8.0 | 3.8 | |
| Number of children | 509.9 (<0.0001) | |||
| No children | 83.7 | 91.3 | 98.2 | |
| 1 | 12.3 | 6.8 | 1.5 | |
| 2 | 3.3 | 1.6 | 0.2 | |
| 3+ | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.02 | |
| Marital status | 704.0 (<0.0001) | |||
| Never married | 62.3 | 71.5 | 88.7 | |
| Married/de facto | 36.0 | 27.7 | 11.1 | |
| Separated/divorced/widowed | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.2 | |
| Physical activity | 73.5 (<0.0001) | |||
| Nil/Sedentary | 8.4 | 6.6 | 4.4 | |
| Low | 40.1 | 37.6 | 35.4 | |
| Moderate | 12.6 | 13.4 | 13.9 | |
| High | 38.9 | 42.4 | 46.3 | |
| Alcohol intake | 121.5 (<0.0001) | |||
| Never/rarely | 48.8 | 42.8 | 36.9 | |
| Low risk | 44.8 | 51.6 | 58.7 | |
| Risky/high risk | 6.4 | 5.6 | 4.4 | |
| Smoking status | 429.7 (<0.0001) | |||
| Non-smoker | 40.9 | 47.8 | 65.2 | |
| Ex-Smoker | 18.4 | 17.0 | 12.7 | |
| Current smoker | 40.7 | 35.2 | 22.1 | |
| Mental health (based on MHI-5) | 56.8 (<0.0001) | |||
| Poor (≤52) | 24.4 | 21.5 | 17.1 | |
| Good (>52) | 75.6 | 78.5 | 82.9 | |
| Country of birth | 72.0 (<0.0001) | |||
| Australia | 94.6 | 95.0 | 91.1 | |
| Other English speaking | 3.6 | 2.6 | 4.1 | |
| Europe | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.1 | |
| Asia | 0.7 | 1.0 | 2.7 | |
| Other (incl. Middle East) | 0.5 | 0.6 | 1.0 | |
| Area of residence | 420.3 (<0.0001) | |||
| Urban (major cities) | 37.3 | 46.6 | 61.2 | |
| Rural (inner regional) | 36.5 | 32.4 | 26.5 | |
| Remote (outer regional/ remote) | 26.2 | 21.0 | 12.3 | |
†Achieved at Survey Five (age 31–36 years) (if missing, then from Survey Four) categorised as ‘Low’ - higher school certificate or lower (≤12 years), ‘Intermediate’ - trade/certificate/diploma or ‘High’ - degree/higher degree.
‡Sample sizes change slightly due to missing values for some variables.
*Mantel-Haenszel chi square used when >10% data was missing.
**Age at birth of first child is based on reported information up to Survey Five.