Table 1

Characteristics of the participants

	Men		Women
	N	Per cent*		Per cent*
Whole sample	3689		4406
Age, mean (SD)		58.7 (4.4)		58.6 (4.4)
Social class
Higher managerial	1543	42.5	1699	39.1
Intermediate occupations	795	21.9	1437	33.0
Routine and manual occupations	1291	35.6	1215	27.9
Employment status
In work	2682	72.7	2804	63.6
Not in work	1007	27.3	1602	36.4
Retired (not for health reason)	517	14.0	927	21.0
Unemployed (not for health reason)	111	3.0	152	3.4
Left for health reason (unemployed or retired)	379	10.3	523	11.9
Current workers
Any sick leave, past 12 months	1003	37.8	1346	48.4
≥20 days sick leave, past 12 months	163	6.2	200	7.2
Cutting down at work to any extent, past 12 months	669	25.1	770	27.6
Cutting down at work a lot, past 12 months	142	5.3	170	6.1
Not coping with work's physical demands	763	28.9	837	30.2
Not coping with work's mental demands	779	29.5	937	33.8
Expecting not to be able to cope at work in 2 years’ time	551	21.0	791	28.5
Often lying awake worrying about work	291	11.0	412	14.8
Job insecure/very insecure	532	20.2	509	18.4