Table 1. Characteristics of the study population (EPIC-Heidelberg, case–cohort sample).

	Incident cases					Subcohort
	Breast cancer	Prostate cancer	Lung cancer	Colorectal cancer	Cancer death	Women	Men	Total
N	627	554	195	256	761	1466	1273	2739
Age at recruitment (years)	51.2±7.9	57.0±5.5	54.3±7.6	55.5±6.6	55.6±6.9	49.5±8.6	52.6±7.1	50.9±8.1
Age at diagnosis (years)	59.6±8.4	66.2±5.9	63.1±7.9	63.5±7.3	63.2±7.7
Women (%)	100	—	29.2	37.1	39.3	100	—	53.5
Albumin (g l−1)	45.0±3.0	45.8±2.9	45.7±3.1	45.5±2.9	45.0±0.1	45.7±3.2	46.3±3.0	46.0±3.1
Bilirubin (μmol l−1)	6.1±3.5	7.8±3.9	5.8±2.8	7.2±4.0	6.8±0.2	6.2±3.9	7.6±4.3	6.8±4.1
Uric acid (mg dl−1)	0.26±0.06	0.35±0.08	0.35±0.09	0.33±0.09	0.32±0.09	0.26±0.07	0.36±0.08	0.30±0.09
BMI (kg m2)	25.3±4.5	27.0±3.3	26.5±4.5	27.4±3.9	26.8±4.3	25.3±4.7	26.8±3.6	26.0±4.3
Waist circumference (cm)	81.3±11.1	96.5±9.5	92.8±13.3	94.2±13.2	92.6±13.8	80.9±11.5	95.8±10.3	87.8±13.2
Aspirin use (%)	2.6	8.8	12.3	7.0	8.3	3.0	6.0	4.4
CRP (mg dl−1)	2.1±3.3	2.3±3.8	3.7±7.1	2.4±3.1	3.9±9.5	2.1±3.6	2.4±5.3	2.2±4.5
Smoking (%)
Never	54.7	42.4	8.7	34.4	33.6	51.4	34.2	43.4
Former	28.2	41.7	24.1	41.4	31.0	27.7	40.0	33.4
Current	16.9	15.7	67.2	23.8	34.8	20.7	25.5	22.9
Missing	0.2	0.2	0	0.4	0.5	0.3	0.3	0.3
Physical activity (%)a
Inactive	13.9	11.2	19.5	14.5	18.3	13.0	10.8	12.0
Moderately inactive	35.2	37.2	34.4	35.9	34.7	35.9	33.9	35.0
Moderately active	28.5	27.3	27.2	25.8	25.2	27.8	28.5	28.1
Active	22.3	24.4	19.0	23.8	21.8	23.2	26.8	24.9
Education level (%)
Primary school	25.6	34.1	44.6	35.9	40.6	27.5	29.6	28.5
Secondary school	47.6	32.5	41.0	36.7	40.1	48.5	32.5	41.1
University degree	26.8	33.4	14.4	27.3	19.3	24.0	37.9	30.4

Abbreviations: BMI=body mass index; CRP=C-reactive protein.

^aAccording to the Cambridge physical activity index.

Values are means±s.d. or proportions.