Table 1.

Sample Description

	Younger	Middle aged	Old
Number	470	273	461
Age (M, SD)	22.02 (4.69)	49.93 (4.50)	70.49 (5.12)
Gender
Male	177	97	180
Female	239	176	281
Education***
≤ High school	19%	13%	15%
Some college	74%	40%	31%
College degree	4%	21%	22%
Postcollege degree	3%	26%	33%
Occupational status***
Retired	< 1%	11%	83%
Students	78%	8%	< 1%
Employed full-time	11%	30%	4%
Employed part-time	5%	14%	8%
Other	5%	38%	5%
Ethnicity***
White/European Americans	52%	57%	81%
Black/African Americans	15%	25%	11%
Hispanic/Latino Americans	17%	13%	5%
Other	17%	6%	3%
General health***
Poor, fair	5%	13%	11%
Good, very good	69%	72%	73%
Excellent	27%	16%	16%
Health compared with other people of same age**
Poor, fair	10%	15%	8%
Good, very good	65%	63%	65%
Excellent	25%	22%	27%
Satisfaction with health**
Not at all, not very satisfied	9%	16%	9%
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	10%	9%	11%
Somewhat satisfied, extremely satisfied	81%	76%	80%
Health problem limited routine activities***
Never, seldom	88%	66%	70%
Sometimes	9%	23%	25%
Often, always	3%	11%	5%

^**p < .01.

^***p < .001.