Baseline characteristics of the study population according to BMI* and physical exercise
| No. of persons | Mean age† (SD) | Mean age‡ (SD) | Mean BMI (SD) | Per cent current smoker | Per cent manual worker | Per cent overweight/obese§ | Per cent inactive¶ | |
| Women | ||||||||
| BMI | ||||||||
| Normal weight | 9572 | 40.2 (12.9) | 51.4 (12.9) | 22.1 (1.6) | 36.5 | 16.2 | – | 50.6 |
| Overweight | 4202 | 49.6 (14.0) | 60.8 (14.1) | 26.9 (1.4) | 24.1 | 15.8 | – | 51.9 |
| Obese | 1417 | 52.0 (13.7) | 63.2 (13.7) | 33.1 (3.1) | 19.3 | 15.2 | – | 60.1 |
| Physical exercise | ||||||||
| Inactive‡ | 5641 | 42.8 (13.6) | 54.1 (13.6) | 24.7 (4.2) | 38.2 | 16.6 | 39.4 | – |
| 0.1–0.9 h/week | 4312 | 43.2 (13.9) | 54.5 (13.9) | 24.4 (3.8) | 30.1 | 15.7 | 34.9 | – |
| ≥1.0 h/week | 5238 | 45.5 (14.8) | 56.8 (14.8) | 24.4 (3.6) | 25.3 | 15.6 | 36.2 | – |
| Men | ||||||||
| BMI | ||||||||
| Normal weight | 7842 | 41.0 (13.7) | 52.3 (13.7) | 22.9 (1.4) | 35.3 | 36.0 | – | 50.1 |
| Overweight | 6030 | 46.5 (13.4) | 57.7 (13.4) | 26.8 (1.3) | 29.6 | 35.0 | – | 55.7 |
| Obese | 894 | 48.2 (13.2) | 59.5 (13.2) | 31.9 (2.0) | 26.6 | 32.3 | – | 65.5 |
| Physical exercise | ||||||||
| Inactive‡ | 6179 | 42.4 (13.3) | 53.6 (13.3) | 25.2 (3.2) | 41.4 | 37.7 | 50.0 | – |
| 0.1–0.9 h/week | 3177 | 44.3 (13.3) | 55.5 (13.4) | 25.1 (2.8) | 30.8 | 35.1 | 47.3 | – |
| ≥1.0 h/week | 5410 | 44.8 (14.7) | 56.8 (14.6) | 24.8 (2.7) | 23.5 | 33.0 | 43.1 | – |