Table 1 Description of the working population included in a hospital-based case-control study conducted in Spain, 1998-2001, by work in the textile industry

	Textile workers (n = 248)		Non-textile workers (n = 2155)
	Bladder cancer (n = 126)	Controls (n = 122)	Bladder cancer (n = 1056)	Controls (n = 1099)
	%	%	%	%
Age (years):
⩽55	8.73	16.39	15.63	16.92
55–64	24.60	26.23	20.93	24.57
65–69	25.40	21.31	21.69	22.93
70–74	23.81	18.03	21.21	19.65
75+	17.46	18.03	20.55	15.92
Gender:
Men	78.57	81.97	91.48	90.90
Women	21.43	18.03	8.52	9.10
Geographic area:
Vallès/Bages	58.73	51.64	10.23	10.46
Barcelona	24.60	26.23	18.56	19.20
Asturias	7.14	11.48	44.51	44.31
Elche	6.35	7.38	7.20	6.37
Tenerife	3.17	3.28	19.51	19.65
Education:
< Primary school	39.68	45.08	46.97	46.31
< High school	42.86	38.52	37.88	38.85
⩾High school	14.29	13.11	13.73	13.38
Other	1.59	1.64	1.23	1.18
Missing	1.59	1.64	0.19	0.27
Smoking status:
Never	26.19	40.16	14.77	33.94
Former	34.92	36.07	42.90	42.22
Current	38.89	23.77	41.76	23.29
Missing	0.00	0.00	0.57	0.54
Answered a textile module	47.62	47.54	–	–