Lifetime body size and reproductive factors: comparisons of data recorded prospectively with self reports in middle age

Table 5 Associations between ordinal MWS body size variables at various ages and corresponding NSHD anthropometry

			Spearman	P
MWS variable and age	NSHD variable (units) and age	N	r*	(trend)†
Relative body size at age 10	Body mass index (kg/m²) at age 11	306	0.51	<0.001
Clothes size at age 20	Body mass index (kg/m²) at age 20	302	0.63	<0.001
Clothes size at resurvey	Body mass index (kg/m²) at age 53	316	0.79	<0.001
Clothes size at resurvey	Waist circumference (cm) at age 53	316	0.79	<0.001
Bra band size at resurvey	Chest circumference (cm) at age 53	291	0.73	<0.001

MWS: Million Women Study. NSHD: National Survey of Health and Development. N: numbers of women with non-missing values for both the MWS and NSHD variables.
* Spearman rank correlation coefficient for the strength of a monotonic relationship between the ordinal MWS variable and the continuous NSHD variable.
† P-values for overall significance of linear regressions of continuous NSHD values against ordinal MWS values.

ISSN: 1471-2288