Table 1

Descriptive statistics for the main outcomes and explanatory variables for the three cohorts in the Twenty-07 study

	Baseline	Wave 2	Wave 3	Wave 4	Wave 5
	1987/1988	1990/1992	1995/1997	2000/2004	2007/2008
Men
1970s cohort
Number in cohort at each wave	737	637	419	384	424
Average age (years)	15.7	18.6	24.8	30.1	36.7
Mean BMI (kg/m²)	20.3	22.5	24.7	26.3	27.9
Mean WHtR	0.44	0.45	0.48	0.51	0.55
% of cohort manual childhood social class	39.5	36.4	35.2	33.6	35.2
1950s cohort
Number in cohort at each wave	656	549	456	446	457
Average age (years)	36.2	40.5	45.3	50.2	57.1
Mean BMI (kg/m²)	25.1	26.0	26.4	27.7	28.6
Mean WHtR	0.51	0.52	0.53	0.55	0.58
% of cohort manual childhood social class	70.91	71.2	70.4	68.9	67.8
1930s cohort
Number in cohort at each wave	702	580	450	368	279
Average age (years)	56.2	59.6	64.3	69.1	76.1
Mean BMI (kg/m²)	25.9	26.2	26.7	27.2	27.3
Mean WHtR	0.55	0.55	0.56	0.57	0.59
% of cohort manual childhood social class	84.4	83.8	81.4	80.4	80.4
Women
1970s cohort
Number in cohort at each wave	778	705	496	459	518
Average age (years)	15.8	18.6	24.9	30.2	36.7
Mean BMI (kg/m²)	21.1	22.8	24.3	26.3	27.6
Mean WHtR	0.43	0.44	0.46	0.49	0.54
% of cohort manual childhood social class	40.7	38.6	34.4	34.5	35.0
1950s cohort
Number in cohort at each wave	788	676	570	534	542
Average age (years)	36.2	40.5	45.2	50.1	57.0
Mean BMI (kg/m²)	24.3	25.5	26.4	27.6	28.4
Mean WHtR	0.47	0.49	0.50	0.53	0.58
% of cohort manual childhood social class	68.4	67.6	66.5	64.5	64.8
1930s cohort
Number in cohort at each wave	849	686	580	470	384
Average age (years)	56.3	59.7	64.5	69.2	76.3
Mean BMI (kg/m²)	26.0	26.5	26.9	27.6	27.9
Mean WHtR	0.51	0.52	0.53	0.55	0.59
% of cohort manual childhood social class	77.5	76.9	75.1	74.3	72.3