Table 1.

Background characteristics of the study population

	Men (n=574 617)		Women (561 037)
	N	%	N	%
Age at baseline
30–34	84 505	14.7	70 793	12.6
35–39	98 333	17.1	89 474	15.9
40–44	103 426	18.0	100 594	17.9
45–49	100 661	17.5	102 908	18.3
50–54	97 177	16.9	102 183	18.2
55–59	90 515	15.8	95 085	16.9
Education
Tertiary	198 936	34.7	252 068	45.0
Secondary	251 862	43.8	217 190	38.7
Primary	123 819	21.5	91 779	16.3
Major occupational group
Managers	33 383	5.8	15 887	2.8
Professionals	100 418	17.5	104 007	18.5
Technicians	103 465	18.0	124 689	22.2
Office and customer workers	19 867	3.5	77 626	13.8
Shop, sales and service workers	35 800	6.2	133 400	23.8
Agricultural workers	34 425	6.0	18 183	3.2
Construction, metal and wood workers	120 951	21.0	11 820	2.1
Machine operators and assemblers	91 159	15.9	24 861	4.4
Unskilled manual workers	35 149	6.1	50 564	9.0
Employment sector
Private	382 138	66.5	251 858	44.9
Public	98 111	17.1	258 930	46.2
Other, including self-employed	94 368	16.4	50 249	9.0
Selected industrial sectors
Manufacturing	156 548	27.2	63 507	11.3
Transportation and storage	62 083	10.8	22 362	4.0
Human health and social work activities	19 763	3.4	161 253	28.7
Physical work load factors
Physically heavy work	207 977	36.2	147 485	26.3
Heavy lifting	121 886	21.2	46 773	8.3
Working in a forward bent posture	199 282	34.7	177 791	31.7
Working with hands above shoulder level	105 962	18.4	51 840	9.2
Work demanding high handgrip forces	196 191	34.1	39 513	7.0
Psychosocial work-related factors
High job demands	214 826	37.4	196 627	35.1
Low job control	331 106	57.6	300 553	53.6
Monotonous work	118 513	20.6	82 296	14.7