Table 3.
Mean (SE) and selected percentiles of serum potassium concentration (mmol/L) and the prevalence of high serum potassium by demographic and health-related characteristics among adults aged 20 years or older, NHANES, 2009–2016 (N = 20 924).
| Demographic and health-related characteristics | Serum potassium mmol/L |
P valuea | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | Mean | Percentiles |
Prevalence of high serum potassium (>5.0 mmol/L) | ||||
| 25th | 50th | 75th | |||||
| Overall | 20 924 | 3.98 (0.01) | 3.79 (0.01) | 3.99 (0.01) | 4.19 (0.00) | 0.62 (0.09) | <0.001 |
| Age group | <0.001 | ||||||
| 20–30 y | 3901 | 3.92 (0.01) | 3.70 (0.00) | 3.90 (0.00) | 4.09 (0.00) | 0.40 (0.13)* | |
| 31–50 y | 7198 | 3.94 (0.01) | 3.74 (0.02) | 3.90 (0.02) | 4.10 (0.01) | 0.23 (0.07)* | |
| 51–70 y | 6754 | 4.01 (0.01) | 3.79 (0.00) | 4.00 (0.00) | 4.20 (0.01) | 0.70 (0.17) | |
| 71+ y | 3071 | 4.10 (0.01) | 3.80 (0.02) | 4.09 (0.01) | 4.30 (0.03) | 2.02 (0.32) | |
| Sex | 0.21 | ||||||
| Male | 10 199 | 4.03 (0.01) | 3.80 (0.00) | 4.00 (0.00) | 4.20 (0.00) | 0.68 (0.12) | |
| Female | 10 725 | 3.93 (0.01) | 3.70 (0.00) | 3.90 (0.00) | 4.10 (0.00) | 0.56 (0.09) | |
| Race and Hispanic originb | 0.04 | ||||||
| NH, White | 8600 | 4.00 (0.01) | 3.79 (0.00) | 3.99 (0.00) | 4.20 (0.00) | 0.71 (0.12) | |
| NH, Black | 4285 | 3.93 (0.01) | 3.70 (0.00) | 3.90 (0.00) | 4.10 (0.02) | 0.51 (0.11) | |
| Hispanic | 5375 | 3.93 (0.01) | 3.70 (0.00) | 3.90 (0.00) | 4.10 (0.00) | 0.46 (0.12) | |
| NH, Asian | 1874 | 3.89 (0.01) | 3.69 (0.00) | 3.89 (0.01) | 4.09 (0.01) | 0.19 (0.09) | |
| BMI | 0.44 | ||||||
| <25 kg/m2 | 6051 | 3.95 (0.01) | 3.70 (0.00) | 3.90 (0.01) | 4.11 (0.02) | 0.73 (0.14) | |
| 25–29.9 kg/m2 | 6794 | 3.98 (0.01) | 3.79 (0.02) | 3.99 (0.01) | 4.19 (0.01) | 0.52 (0.13) | |
| ≥30 kg/m2 | 7849 | 4.00 (0.01) | 3.79 (0.00) | 3.99 (0.00) | 4.19 (0.00) | 0.56 (0.13) | |
| Smoking status | 0.22 | ||||||
| Yes | 4223 | 3.99 (0.01) | 3.79 (0.01) | 3.99 (0.01) | 4.19 (0.00) | 0.50 (0.12) | |
| No | 4948 | 4.02 (0.01) | 3.80 (0.00) | 4.00 (0.00) | 4.20 (0.01) | 0.72 (0.15) | |
*
Abbreviations. NH, non-Hispanic; SE, standard error. *30<RSE ≤ 40; RSE > 40 suppressed according to NCHS recommendations.
a
The reported P value is from the Rao–Scott chi-squared test. P < 0.05 is considered significant.
b
Data on NH, Asian is from NHANES 2011–2016 and was not evaluated in 2009–2010 and data on NH, other is not presented (N = 2664). The P value assesses the difference in the prevalence of persons with low serum sodium among NH, White, NH, Black, and Hispanics.