Participants’ characteristics by gender at baseline
| Men | Women | |||
| Health indicators | ||||
| Muscle strength (kg/m2) (intercept; SD) | 44.5 | 10.0 | 27.3 | 7.1 |
| Linear effect of time | −0.96 | <0.001 | −0.67 | <0.001 |
| Quadratic effect of time | −0.04 | <0.001 | −0.01 | 0.551 |
| Peak expiratory flow (L/min)(intercept; SD) | 437.8 | 159.9 | 300.2 | 124.2 |
| Linear effect of time | −5.82 | <0.001 | −2.14 | 0.106 |
| Quadratic effect of time | −1.15 | 0.003 | −1.30 | <0.001 |
| Cognition. delayed recall (intercept; SD) | 3.4 | 1.9 | 3.8 | 2.0 |
| Linear effect of time | 0.16 | <0.001 | 0.12 | <0.001 |
| Quadratic effect of time | −0.03 | <0.001 | −0.03 | <0.001 |
| Cognition. Verbal fluency (intercept; SD) | 19.6 | 7.1 | 19.2 | 7.2 |
| Linear effect of time | −0.37 | <0.001 | −0.37 | <0.001 |
| Quadratic effect of time | 0.02 | 0.146 | 0.02 | 0.026 |
| Depression (intercept; SD) | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 2.3 |
| Linear effect of time | 0.05 | 0.003 | 0.02 | 0.315 |
| Quadratic effect of time | 0.01 | 0.006 | 0.01 | 0.005 |
| Well-being (intercept; SD) | 37.9 | 5.7 | 37.0 | 6.3 |
| Linear effect of time | 0.14 | 0.006 | 00.04 | 0.349 |
| Quadratic effect of time | -0.04 | <0.001 | -0.02 | 0.047 |
| Early-life SEC | ||||
| No of book | ||||
| Less than 10 | 4600 | 44.087% | 5453 | 42.2% |
| More than 10 | 5834 | 55.913% | 7457 | 57.8% |
| Occupational position of the main breadwinner | ||||
| Low skills | 9053 | 86.8% | 11 236 | 87.0% |
| High skills | 1381 | 13.2% | 1674 | 13.0% |
| Overcrowding (ref. no) | ||||
| Yes | 7596 | 72.8% | 9568 | 74.1% |
| No | 2838 | 27.2% | 3342 | 25.9% |
| Housing quality (ref. high) | ||||
| Low quality | 2914 | 27.928% | 3575 | 27.7% |
| High quality | 7520 | 72.072% | 9335 | 72.3% |
| Adult-life SEC | ||||
| Education | ||||
| Primary | 2638 | 25.3% | 4199 | 32.5% |
| Secondary | 5322 | 51.0% | 6472 | 50.1% |
| Tertiary | 2474 | 23.7% | 2242 | 17.4% |
| Main ocupational position | ||||
| Low skill | 7069 | 67.7% | 8998 | 69.7% |
| High skill | 3284 | 31.5% | 2152 | 16.7% |
| Never worked | 81 | 0.8% | 1763 | 13.6% |
| Satisfaction with Income | ||||
| With great difficulty | 915 | 8.8% | 1431 | 11.1% |
| With some difficulty | 2106 | 20.2% | 2877 | 22.3% |
| Fairly easily | 3241 | 31.1% | 3980 | 30.8% |
| Easily | 4172 | 39.9% | 4625 | 35.8% |
| Covariates | ||||
| Childhood health problems | ||||
| Yes | 2727 | 26.1% | 3239 | 25.1% |
| No | 7707 | 73.9% | 9671 | 74.9% |
| Adverse childhood experiences | ||||
| Yes | 2257 | 21.6% | 2716 | 21.0% |
| No | 8177 | 78.4% | 10 194 | 79.0% |
| Age at baseline (years), SD | 62.5 | 8.8 | 61.9 | 9.3 |
| Countries | ||||
| Belgium | 1129 | 10.8% | 1346 | 10.4% |
| Austria | 325 | 3.1% | 465 | 3.6% |
| Denmark | 886 | 8.5% | 1046 | 8.1% |
| France | 874 | 8.4% | 1124 | 8.7% |
| Germany | 770 | 7.4% | 859 | 6.7% |
| Greece | 1125 | 10.8% | 1344 | 10.4% |
| Italy | 1003 | 9.6% | 1195 | 9.3% |
| Netherlands | 855 | 8.2% | 1015 | 7.9% |
| Spain | 726 | 6.9% | 964 | 7.5% |
| Sweden | 732 | 7.0% | 911 | 7.1% |
| Switzerland | 496 | 4.% | 641 | 5.0% |
| Czech Republic | 647 | 6.2% | 886 | 6.9% |
| Ireland | 200 | 1.9% | 252 | 1.9% |
| Poland | 666 | 6.4% | 865 | 6.7% |
| Birth cohort | ||||
| After 1945 | 4402 | 42.2% | 5883 | 45.6% |
| between 1939 and 1945 | 2568 | 24.6% | 2945 | 22.8% |
| between 1929 and 1938 | 2557 | 24.5% | 2886 | 22.3% |
| between 1919 and 1928 | 907 | 8.7% | 1199 | 9.3% |
| Attrition | ||||
| No drop-out | 7234 | 69.3% | 9528 | 73.8% |
| Drop-out | 2159 | 20.7% | 2559 | 19.8% |
| Death | 1041 | 10.0% | 826 | 6.4% |
The baseline characteristics for early-life SEC and covariates are based on the participants included the model testing for muscle strength (ie, the highest sample size). The coefficients associated with the linear and quadratic effects of time were obtained from models including only time and time squared as fixed effects, as well as a random intercept for participants and random linear slopes for waves at the level of participants.
SEC, socioeconomic circumstances.