| Adult health and mental well-being | 1958 NCDS cohort, age 33 | 1970 BCS cohort, age 30 | |||
| Men | Women | Men | Women | Total | |
| N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | |
| General health | |||||
| Excellent | 1979 (35.9) | 1878 (32.9) | 1707 (31.6) | 1843 (32.2) | 7407 (33.2) |
| Good | 2805 (50.9) | 3026 (53.1) | 2862 (53.0) | 3050 (53.3) | 11 743 (52.6) |
| Fair | 640 (11.6) | 691 (12.1) | 719 (13.3) | 708 (12.4) | 2758 (12.3) |
| Poor | 90 (1.6) | 107 (1.9) | 115 (2.1) | 124 (2.2) | 436 (2.0) |
| Malaise score | |||||
| <7 | 5112 (93.1) | 4990 (87.7) | 4581 (85.8) | 4551 (80.1) | 19 234 (86.6) |
| ⩾7 | 379 (6.9) | 699 (12.3) | 761 (14.2) | 1129 (19.9) | 2968 (13.4) |
| Long-standing illness | |||||
| No | 4591 (82.8) | 4944 (85.9) | 4146 (76.7) | 4391 (76.7) | 18 072 (80.6) |
| Yes, not limiting daily activities | 602 (10.9) | 457 (7.9) | 845 (15.6) | 775 (13.5) | 2679 (11.9) |
| Yes, limiting daily activities | 350 (6.3) | 352 (6.1) | 412 (7.6) | 556 (9.7) | 1670 (7.4) |
p<0.001, χ2 test for association between each health outcome and birth cohort and gender.
Frequency of missing information: general health, 0.7%; long-standing illness, 0.4%; malaise, 1.3%.