Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of study participants by education and cancer diagnosis status, the Health and Retirement Study, United States, 1998–2016
| Baseline Characteristic | Total n = 14 449 |
Educational attainment |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 12 years |
12 to <16 years |
16 or more years |
|||||
| Cancer-free | Incident cancer | Cancer-free | Incident cancer | Cancer-free | Incident cancer | ||
| n = 2 926 | n = 843 | n = 6 171 | n = 1 747 | n = 2 104 | n = 658 | ||
|
| |||||||
| Age, mean (SD), y | 65.9 (10.0) | 69.4 (10.6) | 67.9 (8.9) | 65.0 (9.9) | 65.3 (8.8) | 63.6 (9.7) | 64.0 (8.3) |
| Male, n (%) | 6,057 (41.9) | 1,126 (38.5) | 460 (54.6) | 2,172 (35.2) | 804 (46.0) | 1,098 (52.2) | 397 (60.3) |
| White, n (%) | 11,994 (83.0) | 2,049 (70.0) | 603 (71.5) | 5,345 (86.6) | 1,533 (87.8) | 1,856 (88.2) | 608 (92.4) |
| Childhood SES index, mean (SD) | 0.075 (0.86) | −0.39 (0.74) | −0.39 (0.76) | 0.130 (0.78) | 0.105 (0.78) | 0.57 (0.90) | 0.58 (0.89) |
| Southern birthplace, n (%) | 5,308 (36.7) | 1,565 (53.5) | 462 (54.8) | 1,982 (32.1) | 518 (29.7) | 606 (28.8) | 175 (26.6) |
| Household wealth, per $10,000, median (IQR) | 14.1 (4.8 34.3) | 5.4 (0.713.9) | 6.1 (1.015.2) | 15.1 (6.034.5) | 16.0 (6.432.8) | 32.1 (14.071.3) | 34.8 (15.777.6) |
| Height, mean (SD), m | 1.69 (0.1) | 1.67 (0.1) | 1.70 (0.1) | 1.68 (0.1) | 1.70 (0.1) | 1.71 (0.1) | 1.74 (0.1) |
| BMI, mean (SD), kg/m2 | 27.0 (5.2) | 27.4 (5.6) | 27.5 (5.2) | 27.0 (5.2) | 27.1 (5.0) | 26.3 (4.7) | 26.6 (4.8) |
| Vigorous physical activity, n (%) | 6,535 (45.2) | 1037 (35.4) | 341 (40.5) | 2,912 (47.2) | 844 (48.3) | 1,055 (50.1) | 346 (52.6) |
| Current smoking | 2,402 (16.6) | 507 (17.3) | 228 (27.0) | 1,002 (16.3) | 372 (21.3) | 211 (10.0) | 78 (11.9) |
| Ever smoking | 8,500 (58.8) | 1,709 (58.4) | 606 (71.9) | 3,479 (56.4) | 1,158 (66.3) | 1,145 (54.4) | 403 (61.2) |
| Alcohol use, n (%) | |||||||
| None | 10,008 (69.3) | 2451 (83.8) | 635 (75.3) | 4,326 (70.1) | 1,138 (65.1) | 1,124 (53.4) | 334 (50.8) |
| Low | 4,169 (28.9) | 422 (14.4) | 175 (20.8) | 1,734 (28.1) | 563 (32.2) | 958 (45.5) | 317 (48.2) |
| Binge | 272 (1.9) | 53 (1.8) | 33 (3.9) | 111 (1.8) | 46 (2.6) | 22 (1.1) | 7 (1.1) |
| Self-rated childhood health, n (%) | |||||||
| Excellent/V ery good | 10,928 (75.6) | 1902 (65.0) | 549 (65.1) | 4,798 (77.8) | 1,377 (78.8) | 1,740 (82.7) | 562 (85.4) |
| Good | 2,645 (18.3) | 754 (25.8) | 217 (25.7) | 1,058 (17.1) | 280 (16.0) | 267 (12.7) | 69 (10.5) |
| Poor/Fair | 876 (6.1) | 270 (9.2) | 77 (9.1) | 315 (5.1) | 90 (5.2) | 97 (4.6) | 27 (4.1) |
| Hypertensio n, n (%) | 6,064 (42.0) | 1501 (51.3) | 403 (47.8) | 2,498 (40.5) | 719 (41.2) | 715 (34.0) | 228 (34.7) |
| Diabetes, n (%) | 1,681 (11.6) | 504 (17.2) | 122 (14.5) | 644 (10.4) | 183 (10.5) | 179 (8.5) | 49 (7.4) |
| Heart disease, n (%) | 2,755 (19.1) | 768 (26.2) | 212 (25.1) | 1,082 (17.5) | 325 (18.6) | 278 (13.2) | 90 (13.7) |
| Stroke, n (%) | 890 (6.2) | 301 (10.3) | 69 (8.2) | 323 (5.2) | 102 (5.8) | 70 (3.3) | 25 (3.8) |
| Lung disease, n (%) | 904 (6.3) | 269 (9.2) | 95 (11.2) | 333 (5.4) | 126 (7.2) | 56 (2.7) | 25 (3.8) |
Note: The cancer-free and incident cancer groups refer to cancer status by the end of the follow-up period in 2016
Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; IQR, interquartile range; m, meters; SD, Standard deviation; SES, socioeconomic status.