Table 1.
Characteristics of Older Adults by Citizenship Status and English Proficiency, 2019–2020 California Health Interview Survey
| Variables | Citizenship status | English proficiency | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full sample (N = 15,309) | US born citizen (n = 12,861) | Naturalized citizen (n = 2,200) | Noncitizen (n = 248) | p-value | English only (n = 12,825) | Very well/well (n = 1,972) | Not well/not at all (n = 510) | p-value | |
| M (SD) or % (N) | |||||||||
| Psychological distress (0–24) | 2.71 (4.64) | 2.57 (4.65) | 3.05 (4.23) | 3.03 (2.78) | ** | 2.55 (4.74) | 2.57 (3.53) | 4.01 (3.61) | *** |
| Loneliness (3–9) | 3.87 (1.86) | 3.88 (2.00) | 3.88 (1.50) | 3.68 (0.86) | n.s. | 3.88 (2.04) | 3.81 (1.43) | 3.93 (1.12) | n.s. |
| Citizenship status | *** | ||||||||
| US born citizen (ref.) | 71.11% (12,861) | –– | –– | –– | 91.73% (12,043) | 34.14% (796) |
2.35% (21) |
||
| Naturalized citizen | 24.58% (2,200) | –– | –– | –– | 7.17% (695) |
60.55% (1,098) |
73.81% (406) |
||
| Noncitizen | 4.32% (248) |
–– | –– | –– | 1.10% (87) |
5.31% (78) |
23.84% (83) |
||
| English proficiency | *** | ||||||||
| English only (ref.) | 70.03% (12,825) | 90.34% (12,043) | 20.44% (695) | 17.76% (87) |
–– | –– | –– | ||
| Very well/well | 19.39% (1,972) | 9.31% (796) |
47.77% (1,098) | 23.82% (78) |
–– | –– | –– | ||
| Not well/not at all | 10.59% (510) | 0.35% (21) |
31.80% (406) | 58.43% (83) |
–– | –– | –– | ||
| Gender | n.s. | ** | |||||||
| Male (ref.) | 45.62% (7,318) | 44.69% (6,058) | 47.93% (1,135) | 47.81% (125) | 45.07% (6,040) | 50.42% (1,047) |
40.40% (229) |
||
| Female | 54.38% (7,991) | 55.31% (6,803) | 52.07% (1,065) | 52.19% (123) | 54.93% (6,785) | 49.58% (925) |
59.60% (281) |
||
| Race | *** | *** | |||||||
| Non-Hispanic White (ref.) | 64.70% (12,499) | 82.30% (11,628) | 21.50% (766) | 20.64% (105) | 86.00% (11,768) | 20.75% (698) |
4.33% (33) |
||
| Hispanic/Latinx | 23.35% (1,495) | 15.04% (890) |
40.90% (522) | 60.27% (83) |
10.15% (605) |
50.22% (644) |
61.50% (226) |
||
| Asian | 11.95% (1,315) | 2.65% (343) |
37.60% (912) | 19.09% (60) |
3.85% (452) |
29.03% (610) |
34.17% (251) |
||
| Poverty level | *** | *** | |||||||
| 0%–99% (ref.) | 10.84% (938) | 6.80% (627) |
17.27% (258) | 40.60% (53) |
6.03% (610) |
12.56% (169) |
39.50% (159) |
||
| 100%–199% | 16.72% (1,887) | 12.87% (1,407) | 26.88% (426) | 22.36% (54) |
12.72% (1,383) | 20.71% (320) |
35.89% (184) |
||
| 200%–299% | 13.88% (2,069) | 14.78% (1,777) | 12.37% (263) | 7.79% (30) |
14.64% (1,758) | 14.12% (257) |
8.40% (53) |
||
| 300%+ FPL | 58.56% (10,415) | 65.55% (9,050) | 43.48% (1,254) | 29.25% (111) | 66.61% (9,074) | 52.61% (1,226) |
16.22% (114) |
||
| Age | n.s. | * | |||||||
| 65–74 (ref.) | 56.85% (9,313) | 55.63% (7,800) | 60.48% (1,350) | 56.28% (163) | 55.32% (7,745) | 62.58% (1,260) |
56.48% (307) |
||
| 75–84 | 31.90% (4,606) | 32.55% (3,881) | 29.71% (659) | 33.74% (66) |
32.83% (3,894) | 29.18% (558) |
30.78% (154) |
||
| 85+ | 11.25% (1,390) | 11.82% (1,180) | 9.80% (191) |
9.99% (19) |
11.85% (1,186) | 8.24% (154) |
12.74% (49) |
||
| Marital status | ** | ** | |||||||
| Married/partnered (ref.) | 61.35% (8,482) | 59.19% (6,945) | 67.19% (1,391) | 63.51% (146) | 59.55% (6,939) | 66.79% (1,231) |
63.27% (311) |
||
| Widowed/divorced/separated/unmarried | 38.65% (6,827) | 40.81% (5,916) | 32.81% (809) | 36.49% (102) | 40.45% (5,886) | 33.21% (741) |
36.73% (199) |
||
| Educational attainment | *** | *** | |||||||
| Less than high school (ref.) | 18.36% (556) | 8.12% (233) |
38.99% (253) | 69.53% (70) |
8.05% (225) |
24.93% (116) |
74.54% (215) |
||
| High school graduate | 23.53% (2,005) | 27.04% (1,726) | 15.95% (255) | 8.82% (24) |
26.63% (1,691) | 17.60% (217) |
13.87% (97) |
||
| Some college | 21.06% (4,670) | 24.17% (4,055) | 14.57% (565) | 6.82% (50) |
23.92% (4,041) | 19.36% (547) |
5.22% (80) |
||
| Bachelor’s degree or higher | 37.05% (8,078) | 40.67% (6,847) | 30.49% (1,127) | 14.82% (104) | 41.40% (6,868) | 38.12% (1,092) |
6.37% (118) |
||
| Employment status | n.s. | *** | |||||||
| No (ref.) | 79.53% (11,980) | 79.68% (10,095) | 79.34% (1,699) | 78.20% (186) | 79.46% (10,090) | 76.20% (1,463) |
86.15% (426) |
||
| Yes | 20.47% (3,329) | 20.32% (2,766) | 20.66% (501) | 21.80% (62) |
20.54% (2,735) | 23.80% (509) |
13.85% (84) |
||
| Self-rated health | *** | *** | |||||||
| Fair/poor (ref.) | 21.45% (2,379) | 17.61% (1,811) | 28.67% (493) |
43.47% (75) |
16.46% (1,784) | 22.56% (345) |
52.40% (250) |
||
| Good | 33.63% (4,751) | 32.49% (3,890) | 36.36% (779) | 36.91% (82) |
32.61% (3,874) | 37.10% (693) |
33.99% (183) |
||
| Very good | 32.69% (5,824) | 35.75% (5,073) | 27.15% (684) | 13.91% (67) |
36.48% (5,086) | 30.14% (671) |
12.29% (66) |
||
| Excellent | 12.23% (2,355) | 14.15% (2,087) | 7.83% (244) |
5.71% (24) |
14.45% (2,081) | 10.20% (263) |
1.31% (11) |
||
| Medicare coverage | *** | *** | |||||||
| No (ref.) | 6.86% (776) |
4.97% (600) |
8.92% (136) |
26.19% (40) |
5.00% (595) |
10.01% (137) |
13.42% (44) |
||
| Yes | 93.14% (14,533) | 95.03% (12,261) | 91.08% (2,064) | 73.81% (208) | 95.00% (12,230) | 89.99% (1,835) |
86.58% (466) |
||
| Year | n.s. | n.s. | |||||||
| 2019 (ref.) | 49.24% (8,040) | 50.07% (6,784) | 46.50% (1,140) | 51.29% (116) | 50.62% (6,790) | 46.26% (1,008) |
45.55% (240) |
||
| 2020 | 50.76% (7,269) | 49.93% (6,077) | 53.50% (1,060) | 48.71% (132) | 49.38% (6,035) | 53.74% (964) |
54.45% (270) |
||
Notes: Survey weights were applied to all percentages, means, and standard deviations (SD). The frequencies are unweighted. Percentages and n are presented for categorical variables, and n, means, and standard deviations are presented for continuous variables.
*Indicates statistical significance at the .05 level.
**Indicates statistical significance at the .01 level.
***Indicates statistical significance at the .001 level. Not significant p values are denoted with n.s.