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Table 1 Baseline characteristics (means and proportion) of the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort, according to educational attainment. Statistical variance shown in parentheses represents 95% confidence intervals.

From: Associations of education with 30 year life course blood pressure trajectories: Framingham Offspring Study

  

Educational Attainment (years)

 
 

All Participants

≤12

13-16

≥17

P*

Female

     

   N

2024

970

838

216

 

   Age (years)

36.2 (35.8, 36.6)

38.3 (37.7, 38.9)

34.8 (34.1, 35.4)

32.3 (31.2, 33.5)

<0.0001

   Year of Birth

1937 (1936, 1937)

1935 (1934, 1935)

1938 (1938, 1939)

1941 (1940, 1942)

<0.0001

   Systolic Blood Pressure, mmHg

118 (117, 119)

120 (119, 121)

117 (116, 118)

114 (112, 116)

<0.0001

   Diastolic Blood Pressure, mmHg

75.9 (75.5, 76.3)

76.8 (76.1, 77.5)

75.7 (75.0, 76.3)

72.9 (71.7, 74.1)

<0.0001

   Anti-Hypertensive Medication, %

3.0

3.8

2.5

1.4

0.035

   Alcohol Consumption (drinks/week)

4.4 (4.2, 4.7)

4.2 (3.8, 4.6)

4.5 (4.1, 4.9)

5.2 (4.2, 6.1)

0.037

   Body Mass Index, kg/m2

24.0 (23.8, 24.1)

24.5 (24.3, 24.8)

23.5 (23.2, 23.7)

23.2 (22.7, 23.7)

<0.0001

   Current Smoker, %

42.6

47.3

39.3

33.8

<0.0001

Male

     

   N

1866

757

697

412

 

   Age (years)

37.2 (36.8, 37.7)

40.0 (39.3, 40.7)

35.6 (34.9, 36.3)

34.8 (33.9, 35.7)

<0.0001

   Year of Birth

1936 (1935, 1936)

1933 (1932, 1934)

1937 (193, 1938)

1938 (1937, 1939)

<0.0001

   Systolic Blood Pressure, mmHg

126 (126, 127)

128 (127, 129)

126 (125, 127)

124 (123, 125)

<0.0001

   Diastolic Blood Pressure, mmHg

81.9 (81.5, 82.4)

82.9 (82.2, 83.7)

81.5 (80.7, 82.2)

80.8 (79.9, 81.7)

0.0008

   Anti-Hypertensive Medication, %

3.5

4.0

2.9

3.4

0.482

   Alcohol Consumption (drinks/week)

11.0 (10.5, 11.6)

12.6 (11.6, 13.7)

10.5 (9.6, 11.3)

9.1 (8.1, 10.1)

<0.0001

   Body Mass Index, kg/m2

26.5 (26.4, 26.7)

26.9 (26.6, 27.1)

26.4 (26.2, 26.7)

26.1 (25.7, 26.4)

0.0002

   Current Smoker, %

43.7

49.4

47.7

26.3

<0.0001

  1. To test the trend across education level, we used t tests for continuous variables, and Cochran-Armitage tests for categorical variables.
  2. Pearson chi-square tests comparing males and females for proportion taking anti-hypertensive medication, and proportion current smokers demonstrated P-values of 0.41 and 0.49, respectively.