Table 1 Participant characteristics by gender (mean (SD), % or median (IQR))

Age (years)

53.3 (7.2)

52.9 (6.8)

53.6 (7.4)

0.076

Education

p < 0.001

  High school or less

24.4

30.5

20.7

  Technical/vocational

43.1

34.6

48.2

  Bachelor’s degree or higher

32.6

35.0

31.1

Marital status

p < 0.001

  De facto/married

81.9

72.5

87.7

  Separated/divorced/widowed

11.9

20.2

6.9

  Single

6.2

7.3

5.5

Child(ren) in the household

  Yes, %

48.1

45.3

49.8

0.123

Occupation

p < 0.001

  Professional/managerial

56.6

53.7

58.4

  White collar/administrative

21.9

40.1

10.9

  Blue collar

21.5

6.2

30.7

Annual gross household income

p < 0.001

  Less than $60,000

16.0

21.2

12.9

  $60,000-$125,000

40.4

37.8

42.0

  $125,000+

39.9

36.3

42.1

  Don’t know/Preferred not to say

3.6

4.7

3.0

Average weekday hours worked

8.0 (8.0, 10.0)

8.0 (7.6, 9.0)

8.4 (8.0, 10.0)

p < 0.001

Leisure-time physical activity (min/week) - median (IQR)

240 (90, 500)

210 (60, 420)

270 (95, 540)

0.004

Physical activity guidelines

0.068

  Sufficiently active, %

64.8

61.6

66.7

  Insufficiently active, %

35.2

38.4

33.3

Smoking status

0.055

  Current smoker, %

6.2

4.3

7.3

  Ex-smoker, %

32.4

31.1

33.2

  Non-smoker, %

61.5

64.6

59.6

BMI (kg/m²)

27.9 (5.0)

27.5 (5.7)

28.2 (4.4)

0.034

  Normal, %

29.4

39.1

23.5

p < 0.001

  Overweight, %

43.6

32.4

50.3

  Obese, %

27.0

28.5

26.1

Energy intake (kJ/day)

7036.5 (5367.8, 9091.6)

5661.3 (4552.1, 7014.3)

8083.1 (6370.9, 9989.7)

p < 0.001

Alcohol consumption (g/day)

9.7 (2.1, 23.6)

5.3 (1.2, 15.1)

13.7 (3.2, 30.0)

p < 0.001

  ≤10

50.9

64.8

42.4

  >10- ≤ 20

18.0

16.7

18.7

  >20

31.2

18.5

38.9

Weekday work sitting time (hours/day)

6.0 (3.0, 7.6)

6.0 (2.8, 7.5)

6.0 (3.0, 7.6)

0.924

TV viewing time (hours/day)

1.4 (0.7, 2.1)

1.3 (0.7, 2.0)

1.6 (0.9, 2.3)

p < 0.001