Description of the cohort of male firefighters as of 30 November 2011
| Full time | Part time | |
|---|---|---|
| Firefighters in the cohort | 17 394 | 12 663 |
| Mean age (SD) at cohort start date | 34.3 (9.4) | 33.1 (10.0) |
| Mean age (SD) at cohort end date | 49.92 (12.76) | 44.47 (12.72) |
| Mean employment in years (SD) | 17.43 (11.80) | 9.18 (9.67) |
| Firefighters in current employment in 2010 | 9750 (56%) | 4466 (35% |
| Employed <1 year (%) | 1253 (7.2) | 1336 (10.6) |
| Prevalent hires* (%) | 8055 (46.3) | 4119 (32.5) |
| Duration of employment (number/person-years) | ||
| >3 months–10 years | 12 001/92 695 | 10 684/92 387 |
| >10 years–20 years | 9027/77 292 | 3362/28 719 |
| 20+ years | 7863/98 001 | 1804/21 246 |
| Era of first employment | ||
| Pre-1970 | 1906 | 367 |
| 1970–1994 | 8114 | 3906 |
| Post-1995 | 7371 | 8387 |
| Mortality—follow-up until 30 November 2011 | ||
| Person-years of follow-up | 271 426 | 143 912 |
| Average length of follow-up in years (SD) | 15.6 (8.8) | 11.4 (5.9) |
| Number of deaths notified by agencies | 116 | 0 |
| Number of deaths from NDI linkage (%) | 780 (4.5) | 286 (2.3) |
| Mean age (SD) at death if deceased | 61.6 (13.4) | 55.0 (13.9) |
| Cancer incidence—follow-up until 31 December 2010 | ||
| Person-years of follow-up | 247 469 | 125 582 |
| Mean age (SD) at diagnosis of first cancer | 57.9 (11.7) | 55.4 (12.0) |
| Number of cancers from ACD linkage (%) | 1208 (6.9) | 485 (3.8) |
| Incident analysis | ||
| Firefighters with incidents included in internal incident analyses | 12 043 | 7681 |
| Mean age (SD) at cohort end date | 47.32 (10.6) | 43.07 (12.3) |
| Person-years of follow-up | 136 381 | 62 223 |
| Number of deaths from NDI linkage (%) | 152 (1.3) | 69 (0.89) |
| Number of cancers from ACD linkage (%) | 408 (3.4) | 161 (2.1) |
*Prevalent hires are those firefighters who were already employed at the start of follow-up.
ACD, Australian Cancer Database; NDI, National Death Index.