Table 1 Age and survey year adjusted early life descriptive characteristics of former students (full sample) by presence or absence of respiratory disease in early life

	Bronchitis/pneumonia/asthma				p Value
	Yes		No		p Value
Age* (y) (n, median)	1550	19.7	7994	19.5	0.14†
⩾3 siblings (n (%))	1549	20.6	7991	21.5	0.44
Firstborn (n (%))	1528	58.0	7899	54.1	0.005
Manual father’s occupation (n (%))	1494	7.3	7685	7.3	0.67
Height (cm) (n, mean)	1541	174.9	7956	174.8	0.40
Body mass index (kg/m2) (n, mean)	1539	21.4	7951	21.6	0.01
Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg) (n, mean)	1542	130.6	7944	130.7	0.07
Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg) (n, mean)	1540	77.6	7925	77.0	0.31
Smoking (n (%))	1478	8.6	7587	8.5	0.77
Alcohol consumption (n (%))	1329	53.4	6913	54.6	0.09
Hay fever (n (%))	1550	12.0	7994	5.3	<0.001
Eczema and/or urticaria (n (%))	1550	7.7	7994	2.7	<0.001
No of childhood infectious diseases‡ (n, mean)	1550	3.06	7994	2.87	<0.001

Glasgow Alumni Cohort, 1948–1968.
*Not adjusted for age.
†Wilcoxon rank sum test.
‡Childhood infectious diseases included mumps, measles, rubella, chickenpox, whooping cough, scarlet fever, diphtheria and jaundice.