Table 1. Baseline characteristics of participants, comprising Chinese older adults, from 1998 to 2018.
| Characteristics | All participants | No. of alive | No. of deceased | P -value |
| ( N =34,038) | ( N =8,800) | ( N =25,238) | ||
| Note: Data are n (%) or mean±SD unless otherwise stated. Of the 34,038 older adults, the numbers of missing data ranged from 22 to 138 (29 for occupation, 138 for educational level, 23 for living arrangement, 22 for smoking status, and 35 for drinking status). Abbreviation: BMI=body mass index; ADL=activities of daily living; MMSE=Mini-Mental State Examination; SD=standard deviation; IQR=interquartile range. | ||||
| Age, mean±SD, years | 88.2±11.1 | 79.7±11.0 | 91.2±9.4 | <0.001 |
| Sex, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Male | 14,152 (41.6) | 3,985 (45.3) | 10,167 (40.3) | |
| Female | 19,886 (58.4) | 4,815 (54.7) | 15,071 (59.7) | |
| Ethnicity, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Han | 2,338 (6.8) | 520 (5.8) | 1,818 (7.2) | |
| Other | 31,700 (93.2) | 8,280 (94.2) | 23,420 (92.8) | |
| Residence, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Urban | 13,446 (39.5) | 4,035 (45.9) | 9,411 (37.3) | |
| Rural | 20,592 (60.5) | 4,765 (54.1) | 15,827 (62.7) | |
| Marital status, n (%) | ||||
| Married | 24,448 (71.8) | 4,489 (51.0) | 19,959 (79.1) | <0.001 |
| Unmarried | 9,590 (28.2) | 4,311 (49.0) | 5,279 (20.9) | |
| Occupation, n (%) | ||||
| Famer | 14,738 (43.3) | 3,970 (45.2) | 107,68 (42.7) | <0.001 |
| Others | 19,271 (56.7) | 4,820 (54.8) | 14,451 (57.3) | |
| Income level, n (%) | ||||
| Independent | 7,664 (22.5) | 3,547 (40.3) | 4,117 (16.3) | <0.001 |
| Dependent | 26,374 (77.5) | 5,253 (59.7) | 21,121 (83.7) | |
| Educational level, n (%) | ||||
| <1 year | 22,196 (65.5) | 4,600 (52.4) | 17,596 (70.0) | <0.001 |
| ≥1 years | 11,704 (34.5) | 4,174 (47.6) | 7,530 (30.0) | |
| Living arrangement, n (%) | ||||
| With family | 29,588 (87.0) | 7,498 (85.3) | 22,090 (87.6) | <0.001 |
| Alone or in an institution | 4,427 (13.0) | 1,293 (14.7) | 3,134 (12.4) | |
| Smoking status, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Never | 23,061 (67.8) | 5,827 (66.3) | 17,234 (68.3) | |
| Former | 4,673 (13.7) | 1,122 (12.8) | 3,551 (14.1) | |
| Current | 6,282 (18.5) | 1,845 (21.0) | 4,437 (17.6) | |
| Drinking status, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Never | 23,469 (69.0) | 6,166 (70.2) | 17,303 (68.6) | |
| Former | 3,413 (10.0) | 747 (8.5) | 2,666 (10.6) | |
| Current | 7,121 (20.9) | 1,874 (21.3) | 5,247 (20.8) | |
| Dietary diversity score type, n (%) | ||||
| Well | 16,281 (47.8) | 3,394 (38.6) | 12,887 (51.1) | <0.001 |
| Poor | 17,757 (52.2) | 5,406 (61.4) | 12,351 (48.9) | |
| BMI group, n (%) | ||||
| Underweight (<18.5 kg/m2) | 13,000 (38.2) | 2,541 (28.9) | 10,459 (41.4) | <0.001 |
| Normal (18.5–23.9 kg/m2) | 17,226 (50.6) | 4,607 (52.4) | 12,619 (50.0) | |
| Obese or overweight (≥24.0 kg/m2) | 3,812 (11.2) | 1,652 (18.8) | 2,160 (8.6) | |
| History of disease, n (%) | ||||
| Self-reported bad health status | 7,291 (22.6) | 1,204 (13.9) | 6,087 (25.7) | <0.001 |
| Hypertension | 19,937 (59.8) | 5,119 (59.2) | 14,818 (60.0) | 0.205 |
| Diabetes mellitus | 539 (1.7) | 222 (2.6) | 317 (1.3) | <0.001 |
| Cardiovascular diseases | 3,702 (11.4) | 1,133 (13.4) | 2,569 (10.7) | <0.001 |
| Respiratory disease | 3,789 (11.6) | 896 (10.5) | 2,893 (12.0) | <0.001 |
| ADL disability | 9,380 (27.6) | 1,003 (11.4) | 8,377 (33.2) | <0.001 |
| Cancer | 119 (0.4) | 33 (0.4) | 86 (0.4) | 0.771 |
| MMSE score, median (IQR) | 19.4 (8.4) | 22.8 (5.8) | 18.2 (8.8) | <0.001 |
| Physical Activity, n (%) | ||||
| Regular exercise | <0.001 | |||
| No | 9,244 (27.2) | 3,206 (36.4) | 6,038 (23.9) | |
| Yes | 2,4794 (72.8) | 5,594 (63.6) | 19,200 (76.1) | |
| Leisure activities | ||||
| No | 10,460 (30.7) | 1,828 (20.8) | 8,632 (34.2) | <0.001 |
| Yes | 23,578 (69.3) | 6,972 (79.2) | 16,606 (65.8) | |
| Physical work | <0.001 | |||
| No | 27,595 (81.2) | 6,943 (78.9) | 20,652 (81.9) | |
| Yes | 6,443 (18.8) | 1,857 (21.1) | 4,586 (18.1) | |