Table 1.
Characteristics of participants in four cohort studies
| Finnish Public Sector study20(n=46 974) | Health and Social Support study21(n=12 056) | GAZEL study23(n=10 686) | Whitehall II study22(n=4580) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, mean (SD) | 45·5 (9·5) | 41·8 (10·7) | 51·0 (2·9) | 48·7 (5·6) | |
| Sex | |||||
| Men | 9231 (19·7) | 4655 (38·6) | 7645 (71·5) | 3294 (71·9) | |
| Women | 37 743 (80·4) | 7401 (61·4) | 3041 (28·5) | 1286 (28·1) | |
| Socioeconomic status | |||||
| Low | 7098 (15·1) | 4483 (37·2) | 1147 (10·7) | 729 (15·9) | |
| Intermediate | 12 990 (27·7) | 3877 (32·2) | 5559 (52·0) | 2098 (45·8) | |
| High | 26 886 (57·2) | 3696 (30·7) | 3980 (37·2) | 1753 (38·3) | |
| Chronic disease | |||||
| No | 27 554 (58·7) | 7720 (64·0) | 8747 (81·9) | 3120 (68·1) | |
| Yes | 19 420 (41·3) | 4336 (36·0) | 1939 (18·2) | 1460 (31·9) | |
| Smoking | |||||
| No | 37 870 (82·9) | 9525 (79·8) | 8622 (81·9) | 3831 (85·4) | |
| Yes | 7834 (17·1) | 2415 (20·2) | 1900 (18·1) | 654 (14·6) | |
| Alcohol consumption | |||||
| No | 6545 (14·0) | 1565 (13·0) | 1241 (11·9) | 857 (18·7) | |
| Within recommended limits | 32 278 (69·1) | 7724 (64·2) | 5619 (54·0) | 2556 (55·8) | |
| High | 7886 (16·9) | 2740 (22·8) | 3543 (34·1) | 1165 (25·5) | |
| Heavy episodic drinking* | |||||
| No | 43 283 (93·0) | 10 598 (88·2) | .. | .. | |
| Yes | 3234 (7·0) | 1422 (11·8) | .. | .. | |
| Body-mass index | |||||
| Underweight | 480 (1·1) | 143 (1·2) | 99 (0·9) | 43 (1·0) | |
| Normal | 24 196 (52·9) | 6347 (53·0) | 4997 (47·1) | 2343 (52·4) | |
| Overweight | 15 182 (33·2) | 4068 (34·0) | 4554 (42·9) | 1664 (37·2) | |
| Obese | 5911 (12·9) | 1412 (11·8) | 955 (9·0) | 419 (9·4) | |
| Low physical activity | |||||
| No | 37 565 (80·7) | 9464 (78·9) | 6266 (62·7) | 3653 (79·8) | |
| Yes | 8984 (19·3) | 2538 (21·2) | 3727 (37·3) | 926 (20·2) | |
| Participants with ≥1 day of sickness absence at follow-up | |||||
| Musculoskeletal diseases | 12 911 (27·5) | 2165 (18·0) | 1850 (17·3) | 926 (20·2) | |
| Depressive disorders | 3700 (7·9) | 656 (5·4) | 587 (5·5) | 746 (16·3) | |
| External causes | 5649 (12·0) | 1139 (9·4) | 1548 (14·5) | 829 (18·1) | |
| Circulatory diseases | 2490 (5·3) | 440 (3·6) | 628 (5·9) | 113 (2·5) | |
| Respiratory diseases | 3198 (6·8) | 525 (4·4) | 2127 (19·9) | 2838 (62·0) | |
| Digestive diseases | 2046 (4·4) | 436 (3·6) | 1135 (10·6) | 617 (13·5) | |
| Sickness absence days at follow-up, per 10 person-years | |||||
| Musculoskeletal diseases | 85·6 | 53·2 | 25·3 | 8·7 | |
| Depressive disorders | 30·2 | 18·1 | 21·3 | 13·3 | |
| External causes | 13·3 | 10·2 | 17·7 | 6·2 | |
| Circulatory diseases | 10·4 | 8·1 | 13·2 | 3·1 | |
| Respiratory diseases | 4·9 | 3·5 | 6·7 | 17·3 | |
| Digestive diseases | 3·0 | 2·0 | 6·1 | 2·7 | |