Table 1.
Sociodemographic, health, lifestyle and social characteristics of study cohort, overall and stratified by locale
| Overall | Urban | Rural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | (n = 21,491) | (n = 18,744) | (n = 2,747) | p-value |
| Sociodemographic | ||||
| Age groups, years | < 0.001 | |||
| 65–74 | 60.7 | 59.1 | 66.8 | |
| 75+ | 39.3 | 40.9 | 33.2 | |
| Age, years, mean (95%CI) | 72.9 (72.7, 73.0) | 73.1 (72.9, 73.2) | 72.1 (71.8, 72.4) | < 0.001 |
| Retirement age, years, mean (95%CI) | 61.1 (60.9, 61.3) | 61.2 (61.0, 61.4) | 60.7 (60.1, 61.2) | 0.104 |
| Sex | 0.579 | |||
| Male | 46.5 | 46.4 | 47.2 | |
| Female | 53.5 | 53.6 | 52.8 | |
| Marital status | < 0.001 | |||
| Married/common-law relationship | 66.5 | 64.8 | 72.9 | |
| Single/divorced/separated | 15.4 | 16.7 | 10.5 | |
| Widowed | 18.1 | 18.5 | 16.6 | |
| Education | < 0.001 | |||
| High school not completed | 13.4 | 12.2 | 17.7 | |
| Completed high school | 13.3 | 12.7 | 15.4 | |
| Some post-secondary | 39.9 | 40.0 | 39.4 | |
| University | 33.5 | 35.1 | 27.5 | |
| Annual household income | < 0.001 | |||
| < $50,000 | 43.5 | 42.4 | 47.7 | |
| $50,000- <$100,000 | 35.0 | 34.9 | 35.7 | |
| > $100,000 | 13.2 | 14.1 | 9.7 | |
| Not stated a | 8.3 | 8.6 | 6.9 | |
| Health | ||||
| General health (self-rated) | 0.563 | |||
| Excellent | 18.5 | 18.4 | 18.7 | |
| Very good | 38.8 | 38.4 | 40.4 | |
| Good | 30.0 | 30.3 | 28.5 | |
| Fair | 10.3 | 10.4 | 10.2 | |
| Poor | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.2 | |
| Functional impairment, OARS | 15.5 | 15.9 | 13.8 | 0.050 |
| Chronic condition | ||||
| Arthritis | 39.5 | 39.1 | 40.9 | 0.232 |
| Heart | 26.6 | 26.8 | 25.7 | 0.386 |
| Diabetes | 20.7 | 20.7 | 20.7 | 0.993 |
| Respiratory | 15.6 | 15.7 | 14.9 | 0.428 |
| Stroke | 7.4 | 7.9 | 5.8 | 0.005 |
| Cognitive | 2.2 | 2.2 | 1.7 | 0.256 |
| Parkinson | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.752 |
| Chronic diseases index, mean (95%CI) | 4.8 (4.8, 4.9) | 4.9 (4.8, 5.0) | 4.7 (4.6, 4.9) | 0.149 |
| Depression, CESD 10 + score, mean (95%CI) | 5.3 (5.2, 5.4) | 5.3 (5.2, 5.4) | 5.2 (5.0, 5.5) | 0.534 |
| Positive screen for depression | 16.4 | 16.4 | 16.5 | 0.923 |
| Body mass index, BMI | 0.865 | |||
| Normal/underweight (< 25 kg/m2) | 37.1 | 37.0 | 37.5 | |
| Overweight (25-29.9 kg/m2) | 39.7 | 39.7 | 39.8 | |
| Obese (class I, II, III) (30 + kg/m2) | 23.2 | 23.3 | 22.7 | |
| Lifestyle | ||||
| Smoking status | 0.768 | |||
| Never | 30.1 | 30.3 | 29.6 | |
| Former | 63.6 | 63.5 | 63.7 | |
| Current | 6.3 | 6.2 | 6.7 | |
| Alcohol consumption | 0.672 | |||
| No | 17.1 | 17.0 | 17.4 | |
| Yes | 82.9 | 83.0 | 82.6 | |
| Life satisfaction | 0.001 | |||
| Yes | 87.9 | 87.2 | 90.6 | |
| No | 10.3 | 10.9 | 8.0 | |
| Not stated | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.3 | |
| Social Network | ||||
| Number of living children | < 0.001 | |||
| None | 9.1 | 9.6 | 7.5 | |
| 1–3 | 66.5 | 67.1 | 64.2 | |
| 4+ | 24.4 | 23.4 | 28.3 | |
| Social Support, mean (95%CI) | ||||
| MOS overall social support (SS) score, | 82.4 (82.0, 82.7) | 81.8 (81.4, 82.2) | 84.4 (83.6, 85.3) | < 0.001 |
| Tangible SS score | 82.6 (82.1, 83.0) | 81.8 (81.3, 82.3) | 85.5 (84.5, 86.5) | < 0.001 |
| Affection SS score | 86.3 (85.9, 86.8) | 85.9 (85.5, 86.4) | 87.8 (86.8, 88.8) | < 0.001 |
| Positive SS interaction score | 82.8 (82.4, 83.3) | 82.4 (82.0, 82.9) | 84.3 (83.3, 85.3) | 0.001 |
| Emotional & informational SS score | 80.4 (79.9, 80.8) | 79.8 (79.4, 80.3) | 82.3 (81.3, 83.3) | < 0.001 |
Note: Proportions (%) reported unless mean (95%CI) stated. CLSA sampling weights were applied to all analyses to adjust for sampling probabilities
a More than 5% cases had missing values and were replaced with “not stated.” For other variables missing values were < 2%
Abbreviations: OARS, Older American Resources and Services Multidimensional Assessment scale; CES-D, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale; BMI, Body Mass Index; MOS, Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey