Table 1.

Characteristics of the study participants

	Japan (JAGES) (n=13 123)		Finland (pooled FPS and HeSSup studies) (n=10 353)		P value
	N or mean	% or SD	N or mean	% or SD
Parental divorce	336	2.6	958	9.3	<0.01*
Fear of a family member	1195	9.1	1348	13.0	<0.01*
Childhood poverty	6135	46.8	3013	29.1	<0.01*
Any adverse childhood experience	6561	50.0	3852	37.2	<0.01*
Total number of adverse childhood experiences
0	6562	50.0	6501	62.8	<0.01*
1	5517	42.0	2634	25.4
2	983	7.5	969	9.4
3	61	0.5	249	2.4
Age	69.5	2.8	64.4	2.9	<0.01†
Sex
Male	6214	47.4	3201	30.9	<0.01*
Female	6909	52.7	7152	69.1
SRH
Poor/fair	1770	13.5	3780	36.5	<0.01*
Cancer	460	3.5	388	3.8	<0.32*
Missing			54	0.5
Heart disease or stroke	1353	10.3	466	4.5	<0.01*
Missing			54	0.5
Diabetes mellitus	1738	13.2	714	6.9	<0.01*
Missing			54	0.5
BMI mean	23.0	3.1	26.7	4.4	<0.01†
Smoking
Never	9221	70.3	6973	67.4	<0.01*
Former	2221	16.9	2444	23.6
Current	1681	12.8	936	9.0
Education
<9 years	4395	33.5	1868	18.0	<0.01*
10–12 years	5476	41.7	3168	30.6
12+ years	3103	23.7	5234	50.6
Missing	149	1.1	83	0.8
Marital status
Single	326	2.5	574	5.5	<0.01*
Divorced	535	4.1	1414	13.7
Widowed	1606	12.2	741	7.2
Married/cohabit	10 441	79.6	7557	73.0
Missing	215	1.6	67	0.7
Working status
Not working	8604	65.6	3092	29.9	<0.01*
Working	4062	31.0	7230	69.8
Missing	457	3.5	31	0.3

*Chi-squared test.

^†t-test.

BMI, body mass index; FPS, Finnish Public Sector; HeSSup, Health and Social Support; JAGES, Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study; SRH, self-rated health.