Table 1. Characteristics of the analytical sample at baseline.

	Country cohorts
Covariates	Czech Republic	Russia	Poland
	(n = 7215)	(n = 9042)	(n = 9247)
Age (years, %)
45–49	17.4	16.9	18.4
50–54	20.2	19.4	20.6
55–59	19.2	21.6	21.1
60–64	22.6	19.1	19.9
65–69	20.6	23.0	20.0
Sex (%)
Male	46.6	45.1	48.3
Female	53.4	54.9	51.7
Marital status (%)
Married/cohabiting	75.9	72.2	76.8
Single/divorced/widowed	24.1	27.8	23.2
Education (%)
Less than secondary education	48.1	37.1	32.7
Secondary education	37.7	33.9	38.5
University	14.3	29.0	28.8
Ownership of household items     (sum of 12 items)
Mean	6.9	5.7	6.4
SD	2.3	2.1	2.2
Economic activity (%)
Working	46.5	35.9	38.4
Pensioner still working	7.9	18.5	6.5
Pensioner not working	42.7	41.6	40.1
Unemployed	2.9	4.0	5.0
Spine/joint problems (%)
No	44.6	34.3	30.3
Yes, not hospitalised	42.8	56.3	61.5
Yes, hospitalised	12.5	9.4	8.2
Smoking (%)
Never	43.6	58.5	40.4
Former	29.8	13.5	28.3
Current	26.5	28.0	31.3
Mediterranean diet score (%)
Low (1–7)	23.7	35.2	19.2
Moderate (8–10)	46.2	50.3	50.2
High (11–16)	30.1	14.5	30.6