Table 1.
Characteristics of Women and Men in the Sample at Baseline
| Women | Men | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | n | % | n | % | p |
| Focal variables | |||||
| Physical-activity outcomes | |||||
| Physically inactive | 8,415 | 26.6 | 5,772 | 23.4 | |
| Physically active | 23,202 | 73.4 | 18,942 | 76.6 | < .001 |
| Early-life SECs | |||||
| Number of books | |||||
| 10 or less | 12,230 | 38.7 | 9,977 | 40.4 | |
| More than 10 | 19,387 | 61.3 | 14,737 | 59.6 | < .001 |
| Occupational position of the main breadwinner | |||||
| Low skills | 25,727 | 81.4 | 20,063 | 81.2 | |
| High skills | 5,890 | 18.6 | 4,651 | 18.8 | .573 |
| Overcrowding | |||||
| Yes | 23,726 | 75.0 | 18,183 | 73.6 | |
| No | 7,891 | 25.0 | 6,531 | 26.4 | < .001 |
| Housing quality | |||||
| Low | 8,618 | 27.3 | 6,582 | 26.6 | |
| High | 22,999 | 72.7 | 18,132 | 73.4 | .10 |
| Adult-life SECs | |||||
| Education | |||||
| Primary | 8,186 | 25.9 | 5,156 | 20.9 | |
| Secondary | 17,232 | 54.5 | 13,588 | 55.0 | |
| Tertiary | 6,199 | 19.6 | 5,970 | 24.1 | < .001 |
| Main occupational position | |||||
| Low skills | 19,403 | 61.4 | 15,980 | 64.7 | |
| High skills | 8,477 | 26.8 | 8,428 | 34.1 | |
| Never worked | 3,737 | 11.8 | 306 | 1.2 | < .001 |
| Ability to make ends meet | |||||
| With great difficulty | 3,853 | 12.2 | 2,464 | 10.0 | |
| With some difficulty | 6,968 | 22.0 | 4,954 | 20.0 | |
| Fairly easily | 9,477 | 30.0 | 7,431 | 30.1 | |
| Easily | 11,319 | 35.8 | 9,865 | 39.9 | < .001 |
| Covariates | |||||
| Country of residence | |||||
| Belgium | 2,655 | 8.4 | 2,197 | 8.9 | |
| Austria | 1,714 | 5.4 | 1,231 | 5.0 | |
| Denmark | 1,592 | 5.0 | 1,364 | 5.5 | |
| France | 2,009 | 6.4 | 1,446 | 5.9 | |
| Germany | 2,087 | 6.6 | 1,830 | 7.4 | |
| Greece | 1,968 | 6.2 | 1,497 | 6.1 | |
| Israel | 786 | 2.5 | 601 | 2.4 | |
| Italy | 2,601 | 8.2 | 2,238 | 9.1 | |
| The Netherlands | 1,039 | 3.3 | 870 | 3.5 | |
| Spain | 2,618 | 8.3 | 2,099 | 8.5 | |
| Sweden | 1,889 | 6.0 | 1,627 | 6.6 | |
| Switzerland | 1,304 | 4.1 | 1,085 | 4.4 | |
| Czech Republic | 2,509 | 7.9 | 1,697 | 6.9 | |
| Ireland | 338 | 1.1 | 264 | 1.1 | |
| Poland | 1,111 | 3.5 | 874 | 3.5 | |
| Estonia | 2,068 | 6.5 | 1,258 | 5.1 | |
| Hungary | 244 | 0.8 | 175 | 0.7 | |
| Portugal | 191 | 0.6 | 145 | 0.6 | |
| Slovenia | 1,504 | 4.8 | 1,075 | 4.3 | |
| Luxembourg | 448 | 1.4 | 394 | 1.6 | |
| Croatia | 942 | 3.0 | 747 | 3.0 | < .001 |
| Birth cohort | |||||
| After 1945 | 17,703 | 56.0 | 13,426 | 54.3 | |
| Between 1939 and 1945 | 6,352 | 20.0 | 5,354 | 21.7 | |
| Between 1929 and 1938 | 5,709 | 18.1 | 4,662 | 18.9 | |
| Between 1919 and 1928 | 1,853 | 5.9 | 1,272 | 5.1 | < .001 |
| Attrition | |||||
| No dropout | 26,162 | 82.7 | 19,922 | 80.6 | |
| Dropout | 4,027 | 12.7 | 3,207 | 13.0 | |
| Death | 1,428 | 4.6 | 1,585 | 6.4 | < .001 |
Note: The mean age at baseline was 62.7 years (SD = 9.3) for women and 63.1 years (SD = 8.9) for men (p < .001). For each variable, the p value was obtained by testing for the difference between all levels of the variable and sex. Continuous variables were tested using analyses of variance, and categorical variables were tested using c2 tests. SECs = socioeconomic circumstances.