Characteristics given as median (range) for the 1837 obese and 3401 controls.

Abbreviations: BMI: body mass index.*As the control cohort was a random sample of the non-obese study population we show the contribution from underweight, normal weight and overweight men in this sample.†age at draft board examination. The median age (range) for becoming at risk in the fatal morbidity analysis was 20.2 (18.3–51.5) for the obese and 23.6 (18.0–51.5) for the controls, and for the incidence analysis the corresponding ages were 25.3 (18.3–58.5) and 30.2 (18.3–58.5), respectively. This difference was due to the different timing in the establishment of the health registers.