Table 1.
Lifestyle exposure variables used in this study
| Lifestyle exposure | Variable | Original variable(s) in FHS | Modification/Remark | Values* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smoking | 1. | Smk_now | Smoke regularly in the past year? | 0: former and never smokers 1: current smokers only |
Smk_now (0) Smk_now (1) |
| 2. | Smk_ever | Ever smoke cigarettes regularly? | 0: never smokers only 1: former and current smokers |
Smk_ever (0) Smk_ever (1) |
|
| Alcohol | 3. | Alc_heavy | Total number of alcoholic drinks/week | 0: consumed 0 or 1 – 7 drinks/week | Alc_heavy (0) |
| 1: consumed > 7 drinks/week | Alc_heavy (1) | ||||
| 4. | Alc_moderate | Total number of alcoholic drinks/week | 0: consumed 0 or > 7 drinks/week | Alc_moderate (0) | |
| 1: consumed 1 – 7 drinks/week | Alc_moderate (1) | ||||
| Education | 5. | Edu_somecol | Post-secondary education? (Education level in categories/years) | 0: if no post-secondary education (i.e., no schooling, grades 1 – 11, high school grad or GED or years of education ≤ 12). | Edu_somecol (0) |
| 1: if there is some form of post-secondary education (i.e., some college, technical school, associate degree, bachelors degree, or graduate/professional degree or years of education ≥ 13) | Edu_somecol (1) | ||||
| 6. | Edu_gradcol | Graduate college? (Education level in categories/years) | 0: if no graduate college degree (i.e., all the levels below bachelors degree defined above). | Edu_gradcol (0) | |
| 1: if bachelors/graduate/professional degree or ≥ 16 years of education. | Edu_gradcol (1) | ||||
| Physical activity | 7. | PA_active | Hours spent in moderate activity, and hours spent in heavy activity | Sum of time spent in moderate activity and twice the time spent in heavy activity, then split by lower quartile (Q1=3); 0: ≥ 3 hours of time equivalent in moderate and heavy physical activity 1: < 3 hours of time equivalent in moderate and heavy physical activity. |
PA_active (0) PA_active (1) |
*
Value assignment across variables was done in one of two ways; for Smk_now, Smk_ever, Alc_heavy and PA_active, 0 was assigned to the unexposed group and 1 to the exposed group, while for Alc_moderate, Edu_somecol and Edu_gradcol, the unexposed group was assigned a value of 1 and the exposed group a value of 0.