Table 1.

Characteristics of Study Population, by Race and Ethnicity^a

	Whites		Blacks		Hispanics		Asians		Native Americans		Other
	n	%	N	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Elderly persons	1,380,570	100	116,406	100	30,067	100	15,035	100	1,652	100	18,800	100
Sex
Male	556,611	40.32	43,226	37.13	13,488	44.86	6,686	44.47	765	46.31	6,849	36.43
Female	823,959	59.68	73,180	62.87	16,579	55.14	8,349	55.53	887	53.69	11,951	63.57
Age
65–69	368,271	26.68	33,845	29.07	10,053	33.44	4,689	31.19	580	35.11	7,018	37.33
70–74	359,932	26.07	31,031	26.66	9,790	32.56	4,630	30.79	461	27.91	4,593	24.43
75–79	290,712	21.06	22,938	19.71	5,742	19.1	3,027	20.13	298	18.04	3,383	17.99
80–84	197,725	14.32	15,236	13.09	2,856	9.5	1,645	10.94	188	11.38	2,243	11.93
≥85	163,930	11.87	13,356	11.47	1,626	5.41	1,044	6.94	125	7.57	1,563	8.31
Residenceb
Rural	342,088	25.11	20,684	18.2	2,591	10.32	1,093	7.4	885	57.21	2,784	15.65
Urban	1,020,291	74.89	92,989	81.8	22,510	89.68	13,670	92.6	662	42.79	15,001	84.35
Died during 1997	66,813	4.84	6,476	5.56	1,025	3.41	499	3.32	80	4.84	706	3.76
Medicaid coverage in Dec.1997c	94,516	6.85	31,096	26.71	11,627	38.67	8,245	54.84	667	40.38	5,845	31.09
Percent of the Total	88.35%		7.45%		1.92%		0.96%		0.11%		1.20%

^aFull sample of 5% denominator file used.

^bUrban refers to residence in a metropolitan county, rural refers to residence in a nonmetropolitan county.

^cElderly persons who had Medicaid in addition to Medicare coverage.