Table 6 shows the distribution of diabetes, hypertension and associated risk factors stratified by occupation grade.
The occupation grade effect remained significant in the maximally adjusted model.
For those no longer working in the civil service, information for the most recent occupation grade was filled in from phase 8 back to phase 1.
A case-control study in Sweden involving 1,894 participants aged 18-74 years used highest occupation grade of spouses and parents as a measure of household SES and found that women in families with only unskilled workers had a 2-fold increase in odds of CKD in comparison to women in families of professionals.
Strengths of this study include use of a large cohort, use of occupation grade as an individual's measure of SES in a stratified sample of working environment within the UK civil service independent of racial and ethnic effects, adjustments for proxies of lean body mass, and use of the recently devised CKD-EPI equation to estimate GFR.
Using age-adjusted linear and logistic regression models, differences in BMI and metabolic syndrome components according to occupation grade and the odds of decreased GFR according to all factors under study were computed stratified by sex as a means of testing the pattern, strength, and magnitude of associations with the main outcome and exposures.
Of these eligible participants, a valid creatinine measurement was obtained for 5,533 (96.6%) in addition to data for occupation grade, obesity, and metabolic syndrome components, yielding a sample of 4,066 white men (73%) and 1,467 women (27%) aged 55-79 years at phase 9.
Job title was used to assign a social grade [ 23]: Grades A and B encompassed mid or top level management and other high level professionals, grade C1 included junior management and other non manual occupations, grade C2 included skilled manual workers, grade D included semi and unskilled workers, and grade E referred to the state dependent and those without regular employment.
Occupation was a less important determinant of NCD risk: in men only higher occupational grade was associated with less tobacco use and in women with lower total cholesterol.
Military service characteristics significantly associated with diabetes odds included deployment without combat experience, administration or supply occupations, pay grade, and having separated from the military since baseline.
