Characteristics and prevalence of respiratory symptoms at study entry among women, men and all participants
| Characteristics | Women n=545 | Men n=432 | P value | All n=977 |
| Age Mean (SD) in years | 40.3 (12.0) | 40.7 (11.4) | 0.600 | 40.4 (11.7) |
| BMI mean (SD) | 25.2 (4.5) | 26.1 (3.4) | <0.001 | 25.6 (4.1) |
| BMI category | <0.001 | |||
| Underweight (BMI <20) | 42 (7.7) | 8 (1.9) | 50 (5.1) | |
| Normal (20≤BMI<25) | 266 (48.8) | 175 (40.5) | 441 (45.1) | |
| Overweight (25≤BMI<30) | 145 (26.6) | 183 (42.4) | 328 (33.6) | |
| Obese (BMI≥30) | 78 (14.3) | 55 (12.7) | 133 (13.6) | |
| BMI missing | 14 (2.6) | 11 (2.5) | 25 (2.6) | |
| Smoking habits | 0.080 | |||
| Non-smoker | 250 (45.9) | 185 (42.8) | 435 (44.5) | |
| Ex-smoker | 139 (25.5) | 138 (31.9) | 277 (28.4) | |
| Current smoker | 156 (28.6) | 109 (25.2) | 265 (27.1) | |
| Any asthma medication use last 12 months | 189 (34.7) | 170 (39.4) | 0.132 | 359 (36.7) |
| Inhaled corticosteroids use last 12 months | 0.077 | |||
| As needed | 13 (2.4) | 22 (5.1) | 35 (3.6) | |
| Most days of the week | 46 (8.4) | 35 (8.1) | 81 (8.3) | |
| Allergic rhinitis | 192 (35.2) | 147 (34) | 0.695 | 339 (34.7) |
| Cohort | 0.054 | |||
| I | 92 (16.9) | 79 (18.3) | 171 (17.5) | |
| II | 220 (40.4) | 194 (44.9) | 414 (42.4) | |
| III | 46 (8.4) | 37 (8.6) | 83 (8.5) | |
| IV | 56 (10.3) | 52 (12) | 108 (11.1) | |
| V | 131 (24) | 70 (16.2) | 201 (20.6) | |
| Recurrent wheeze | 430 (78.9) | 332 (76.9) | 0.443 | 762 (78.0) |
| Dyspnoea | 175 (32.1) | 64 (14.8) | <0.001 | 239 (24.5) |
| Longstanding cough | 275 (50.5) | 168 (38.9) | <0.001 | 443 (45.3) |
| Productive cough | 195 (35.8) | 151 (35.0) | 0.789 | 346 (35.4) |
| Number of symptoms | <0.001 | |||
| None or one | 206 (37.8) | 216 (50.0) | 422 (43.2) | |
| Two | 157 (28.8) | 110 (25.5) | 267 (27.3) | |
| Three | 127 (23.3) | 87 (20.1) | 214 (21.9) | |
| Four | 55 (10.1) | 19 (4.4) | 74 (7.6) |
Basic characteristics presented as mean (SD) with p values from t-test and n (%) with p values from χ2 test.
The number of symptom groups include recurrent wheeze, dyspnoea, longstanding cough and productive cough.