Table 1.
Characteristics of chimney sweeps assessed at the time of study participation
| Variable | Total number of respondents | N | %a |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age, median years (range) | 483 | 46 (21–69) | 100.0 |
| Smoking habits | 480 | ||
| Non-smoker | 279 | 57.8 | |
| Smoker | 201 | 41.6 | |
| Alcohol consumption (yes) | 479 | ||
| ≥4 times/week | 6 | 1.2 | |
| 2–3 times/week | 87 | 18.0 | |
| 2–4 times/month | 247 | 51.1 | |
| ≤once/month | 139 | 28.8 | |
| Place of residence (city) | 482 | ||
| Small city (<100,000 inhabitants) | 437 | 90.5 | |
| Medium city (100,000–300,000 inhabitants) | 24 | 5.0 | |
| Big city (>300,000 inhabitants) | 21 | 4.3 | |
| Place of residence (province) | 482 | ||
| Götaland (southern Sweden) | 220 | 45.5 | |
| Svealand (middle Sweden) | 156 | 32.3 | |
| Norrland (northern Sweden) | 106 | 21.9 | |
| Working years | 474 | ||
| ≤1 | 27 | 5.6 | |
| >1–11 | 113 | 23.4 | |
| >11–21 | 105 | 21.7 | |
| >21–31 | 111 | 23.0 | |
| >31–41 | 70 | 14.5 | |
| >41–51 | 48 | 9.9 | |
| Atopy (yes) | 475 | 102 | 21.1 |
| Chronic lung/heart disease (yes) | 458 | 22 | 4.6 |
| Asthma (yes) | 472 | 38 | 7.9 |
aCalculated based on the total number of participants (n = 483)