Favorable lifestyle before diagnosis associated with lower risk of screen-detected advanced colorectal neoplasia

Table 1 Characteristics of participant’s n (%)

Variable	Total (n = 6315)1 % column	Advanced colorectal neoplasia (n = 311) % row
Screening arm
Fecal immunochemical test	3323 (53)	85 (3)
Flexible sigmoidoscopy	2992 (47)	226 (8)
Age
mean (SD)	62.0 (7.0)	64.2 (6.9)
Sex
Female	3255 (52)	118 (4)
Male	3060 (48)	193 (6)
Occupation
Employed	3186 (50)	115 (4)
Unemployed	2944 (47)	189 (6)
Missing	185 (3)	7 (4)
Education length
Primary school	1008 (16)	58 (6)
High school	2388 (38)	132 (5)
University/college studies of min. 2 yr	2636 (42)	104 (4)
Missing	283 (4)	17 (6)
Ethnicity
Norwegian	5887 (93)	295 (5)
Not norwegian	361 (6)	12 (3)
Missing	67 (1)	4 (6)
Marital status
Single, widowed, divorced	1195 (19)	62 (5)
Married, living together	5032 (80)	247 (5)
Missing	88 (1)	2 (2)
Chronic disease2
Yes	1593 (26)	86 (5)
No	4507 (74)	212 (5)
Missing	215 (3)	13 (6)
Whole meal bread slices per day
< 1.5	1293 (20)	88 (7)
1.5	1895 (30)	83 (4)
3.5	2175 (34)	101 (5)
> 3.5	928 (15)	38 (4)
Missing	24 (0)	1 (4)

¹The number of replies may not sum to the total due to incomplete replies on the lifestyle questionnaire;

²Chronic disease was asked as: have you doing the last 3 years had some chronic disease that limited your physical activity (e.g., problem with the hip or cardiovascular diseases) Demographic characteristics and whole meal bread consumption for participants in the lifestyle sub-study of the Bowel Cancer Screening in Norway - a pilot study.