| Childhood measures from birth to age 16 | 1958 NCDS cohort | 1970 BCS cohort | Total | ||
| Men | Women | Men | Women | ||
| N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | |
| Socioeconomic deprivation | |||||
| No evidence | 3231 (58.4) | 3277 (57.2) | 3387 (63.1) | 3528 (61.9) | 13 423 (60.1) |
| Some deprivation | 1916 (34.7) | 2044 (35.7) | 1704 (31.7) | 1835 (32.2) | 7499 (33.6) |
| Severe deprivation | 382 (6.9) | 413 (7.2) | 279 (5.2) | 334 (5.9) | 1408 (6.3) |
| Family housing tenure | |||||
| Consistent home owners | 2176 (40.0) | 2174 (38.5) | 2697 (51.6) | 2867 (51.7) | 9914 (45.4) |
| Other tenures | 1411 (25.9) | 1496 (26.5) | 1326 (25.4) | 1406 (25.3) | 5639 (25.8) |
| Consistent social housing | 1852 (34.1) | 1975 (35.0) | 1199 (23.0) | 1275 (23.0) | 6301 (28.8) |
| Family disruption | |||||
| No evidence | 4649 (83.6) | 4759 (82.5) | 4151 (76.8) | 4317 (75.3) | 17 876 (79.6) |
| Some disruption | 911 (16.4) | 1007 (17.5) | 1254 (23.2) | 1414 (24.7) | 4586 (20.4) |
| Parental interest | |||||
| Interested | 3501 (80.6) | 3676 (82.6) | 3458 (90.4) | 3718 (91.6) | 14 353 (86.1) |
| Lacking interest | 841 (19.4) | 776 (17.4) | 367 (9.6) | 340 (8.4) | 2324 (13.9) |
| Behaviour problems | |||||
| No indication | 4187 (77.2) | 4664 (82.7) | 4241 (82.2) | 4709 (85.7) | 17 801 (82.0) |
| Any high | 917 (16.9) | 742 (13.2) | 710 (13.8) | 633 (11.5) | 3002 (13.8) |
| Consistently high | 320 (5.9) | 233 (4.1) | 206 (4.0) | 154 (2.8) | 913 (4.2) |
| Academic test scores | |||||
| No low scores | 3617 (66.1) | 3862 (68.0) | 3268 (65.4) | 3515 (65.7) | 14 262 (66.4) |
| Any low score | 913 (16.7) | 913 (16.1) | 1224 (24.5) | 1282 (24.0) | 4332 (20.2) |
| Consistently low scores | 939 (17.2) | 906 (15.9) | 502 (10.1) | 555 (10.4) | 2902 (13.5) |
| Birth weight | |||||
| >3.0 kg | 4093 (79.9) | 3802 (71.1) | 3893 (78.0) | 3838 (72.2) | 15 626 (75.2) |
| 2.51–3 kg | 773 (15.1) | 1171 (21.9) | 825 (16.5) | 1151 (21.6) | 3920 (18.9) |
| ⩽2.5 kg | 254 (5.0) | 373 (7.0) | 274 (5.5) | 329 (6.2) | 1230 (5.9) |
| Health difficulties | |||||
| No indication | 4140 (76.6) | 4271 (76.2) | 4071 (80.0) | 4357 (80.8) | 16 839 (78.4) |
| Any indication | 1000 (18.5) | 1119 (20.0) | 868 (17.1) | 887 (16.5) | 3874 (18.0) |
| Repeated indication | 268 (5.0) | 214 (3.8) | 148 (2.9) | 148 (2.7) | 778 (3.6) |
p<0.001, χ2 test for association between each childhood measure and birth cohort and gender.
Frequency of missing information: socioeconomic deprivation, 0.8%; housing tenure, 2.9%; family disruption, 0.2%, parental interest, 25.9%; behaviour problems, 3.5%; academic test scores, 4.5%; birth weight, 7.7%; health difficulties, 4.5%