Table 1

Prevalence (%) of sociodemographic and health characteristics at baseline

	Finnish Public Sector Study (Finland)	GAZEL (France)	Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (Sweden)	Whitehall II (UK)
Sample size at baseline	36 317	11 302	8194	9121
Sex (%)
Male	21	73	46	68
Female	79	27	54	32
Age group (%)
50–54	72	91	42	84
55–59	23	9	24	14
60–64	4	0	24	2
65–69	0	–	10	0
70–74	–	–	0	0
Occupational position (%)
High grade	31	28	19	31
Middle grade	48	57	45	48
Low grade	21	15	36	21
Job strain (%)
No job strain	80	86	80	86
Job strain	20	14	20	14
Self-rated health (%)
Good	64	80	78	79
Suboptimal	36	20	22	21
Chronic disease*	(n=36 317)	(n=11 302)	(n=8070)	(n=9143)
No	73	76	79	76
Yes	27	24	21	24