Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the included 75,890 observations in the cross-sectional analysis and the 7020 study participants in the prospective analysis

Age (years)

Sex (%female)

4550 (64.8)

BMI (kg/m²)

Smoking (%current smokers)

1366 (19.5)

Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)

Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)

Blood pressure ≥ 90/≥140 mmHg

–

Using anti-hypertensives

–

Being hypertensive (using anti-hypertensives and/or SBP ≥ 140 mmHg or DBP ≥ 90 mmHg at baseline examination)

–

Being hypertensive (using anti-hypertensives and/or SBP ≥ 130 mmHg or DBP ≥ 80 mmHg at baseline examination)

3801 (54.1)

Being hypertensive (using anti-hypertensives and/or SBP ≥ 160 mmHg or DBP ≥ 100 mmHg at baseline examination)

–

School education (years)

Occupational physical activity

Predominantly sedentary

2884 (41.1)

Sitting or standing, some walking

2284 (32.5)

Walking, some handling of material

1635 (23.3)

Heavy manual work

217 (3.1)

Occupational heavy lifting (%yes)

990 (14.1)

Leisure-time physical activity

Inactive/light physical active < 2 h/week

401 (5.7)

Light physical active 2–4 h/week

2936 (41.8)

Light physical active > 4 h/week OR MVPA 2–4 h/week

3244 (46.2)

MVPA > 4 h/week

416 (5.9)

Mental stress (%often feeling nervous or stressed)

2112 (30.2)