Table 1.

Summary characteristics of the participants for each sub-dataset µ Smoking status in YFS was categorised as ever vs never, *sedentary not available in NCDS.

		Sub-dataset 1 (N = 17 470) CRP-Fibrinogen	Sub-dataset 2 (N = 15 019) CRP-IL6	Sub-dataset 3 (N = 8 485) CRP-TNFA	Sub-dataset 4 (N = 6751) CRP-IL1B
		Mean (SD) or N(%)	Mean (SD) or N(%)	Mean (SD) or N(%)	Mean (SD) or N(%)
Cohorts		Whitehall, NCDS, ELSA	Whitehall, Colaus, YFS, Skipogh	Colaus, YFS, Skipogh	Colaus, Skipogh
Demographics
Age		51.3 (8.8)	49.6 (10.2)	49.3 (12.5)	52.3 (12.1)
Sex	Men	9875 (56.53)	8549 (56.92)	4012 (47.28)	3244 (48.05)
	Women	7595 (42.47)	6470 (43.08)	4473 (52.72)	3507 (51.95)
Inflammatory level
CRP (mg/L)		2.4 (5.0)	2.2 (3.9)	2.4 (3.7)	2.5 (3.8)
Fibrinogen (g/L)		2.8 (0.7)
IL6 (pg/mL)			5.6 (35)
TNFA (pg/mL)				16.4 (45.9)
IL1B (pg/mL)					4.3 (16.3)
Socioeconomic position
Educational attainment	High	4174 (23.89)	5260 (35.02)	2980 (35.12)	1900 (28.14)
	Middle	2979 (17.05)	2885 (19.21)	1132 (13.34)	1077 (15.95)
	Low	10,317 (59.06)	6874 (45.77)	4373 (51.54)	3774 (55.9)
Intermediate factors
Alcohol consumption	Abstainer	4316 (24.71)	3748 (24.96)	2541 (29.95)	1862 (27.58)
	Low	9214 (52.74)	8914 (59.35)	4624 (54.5)	4227 (62.61)
	High	3940 (22.55)	2357 (15.69)	1320 (15.56)	662 (9.81)
Smoking statusµ	Never	8076 (46.23)	6848 (45.60)	3616 (42.62)	2741 (40.6)
	Former	6171 (35.32)	4592 (30.57)	2185 (25.75)	2185 (32.37)
	Current	3223 (18.45)	2720 (18.11)	1825 (21.51)	1825 (27.03)
	Ever		859 (5.72)	859 (10.12)
BMI	Underweight	75 (0.43)	129 (0.86)	94 (1.11)	80 (1.19)
	Normal weight	7888 (45.15)	7416 (49.38)	4007 (47.22)	3175 (47.03)
	Overweight	6825 (39.07)	5527 (36.8)	3060 (36.06)	2446 (36.23)
	Obese	2682 (15.35)	1947 (12.96)	1324 (15.6)	1050 (15.55)
Sedentary	No	8106 (46.40)	11,089 (73.83)	5862 (69.09)	4339 (64.27)
	Yes	2215 (12.68)	3930 (26.17)	2623 (30.91)	2412 (35.73)
	Missing	7149 (40.92)