Of the 8,815 participants who took part in the Whitehall II phase 3 examination, 2,429 were excluded due to one or more of the following reasons: prevalent type 2 diabetes at phase 3 (n = 162), missing follow-up on type 2 diabetes status (n = 588), serum CRP levels >10 mg/l at phase 3 or 5 (n = 356) indicating acute infection, missing data on SES indicators, such as father's occupational position (n = 754) or education (n = 696), missing data on inflammatory markers CRP (n = 721) or serum IL-6 (n = 723) at phase 3 (Table S2). The gene discussed is IL6; the disease is type 2 diabetes mellitus.