Table 1.

Characteristics of the two study populations and the pooled sample

	Swedish women (n=1147)	Danish women (n=1259)	Pooled sample (n=2406)
Age distribution at baseline (years)
30–32	–	358 (28.4)	358 (14.9)
38–42	305 (26.6)	344 (27.3)	649 (27.0)
46–47	332 (29.0)	–	332 (13.8)
50–52	323 (28.2)	321 (25.5)	644 (26.8)
54–55	138 (12.0)	–	138 (5.7)
60–62	49 (4.3)	236 (18.8)	285 (11.9)
Age at baseline height examination (mean (SD), years)	47.1 (6.1)	44.3 (10.8)	45.6 (9.0)
Age at last height examination (mean (SD), years)	59.1 (6.1)	55.2 (10.8)	57.1 (9.1)
Height at baseline (mean (SD), cm)	163.7 (5.8)	163.7 (6.1)	163.7 (6.0)
Weight baseline (mean (SD), kg)	64.3 (10.3)	63.1 (10.5)	63.7 (10.4)
Height loss (mean (SD), cm)	1.09 (1.21)	0.6 (1.0)	0.84 (1.12)
Time interval (mean (SD), years)	12.0 (0.2)	10.9 (0.3)	11.4 (0.6)
Rate of height loss (mean (SD), cm/year)	0.09 (0.10)	0.06 (0.09)	0.07 (0.10)
Education: compulsory or less at baseline	793 (69.3)	411 (32.6)	1204 (50.1)
Smoking at baseline
Never	603 (52.6)	415 (33.0)	1018 (42.3)
Former	89 (7.8)	215 (17.1)	304 (12.6)
Current	454 (39.6)	629 (50.0)	1083 (45.0)
Leisure time physical activity at baseline
Low (almost inactive)	198 (17.3)	367 (29.2)	565 (23.5)
Medium (≥4 hours low impact leisure time physical activity/week)	812 (71.0)	718 (57.3)	1530 (63.8)
High (regular physical activity or competitive sports)	136 (11.9)	174 (13.8)	310 (12.9)
Leisure time physical activity at follow-up
Low (almost inactive)	335 (29.2)	311 (26.1)	646 (27.6)
Medium (≥4 hours low impact leisure time physical activity/ week)	582 (51.0)	735 (61.8)	1317 (56.5)
High (regular physical activity or competitive sports)	230 (20.1)	146 (12.3)	376 (16.1)
alcohol intake (mean (SD), g/day)	8.3 (10.9)	9.8 (11.6)	9.1 (11.3)

Data are numbers (%) unless indicated otherwise.