Table 1

Descriptive characteristics of sample

	South Asians	Whites
	(n=5421)	(n=8974)
Age (years)	33.90±10.10	38.06±10.29*
Sex
Male	46.2%	44.6%
Country of birth
UK	25.5%	81.4%*
Years in UK^†	26.15±11.12	–
Marital status
Married	71.4%	52.3%*
No. of children	1.44±1.44	0.71±1.00*
Home ownership
Owner	62.2%	74.4%*
Car ownership
Owner	74.9%	85.0%*
Employment status
Working	50.0%	78.0%*
Annual total income
<£20800	64.8%	35.6%*
Education
Up to GCSE	39.2%	49.1%*
Occupation
Manual	47.6%	38.8%*
Body mass index	25.79±4.82	26.68±5.10*
Waist-hip ratio	0.86±0.08	0.85±0.08*
Self-reported health
Poor/very poor	8.5%	4.3%*
Limiting long-standing illness	18.6%	19.4%
Smoking
Ever smoked	26.2%	65.8%*
TotalMETs	902.57±1248.82	1449.18±1577.69*
GHQ score	1.62±2.73	1.38±2.57*