Table 3.
Baseline Means (and Standard Deviations) or Percentages of the Potential Antecedents of Self-Rated Health (SRH) Changes and Trajectories (weighted N = 829)
| SRH in Wave 5 Compared to Wave 1 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | Worse (n = 169) | Same (n = 456) | Better (n = 203) | p value |
| Sociodemographics | ||||
| Age | 56.6 (4.4) | 56.93 (4.4) | 56.7 (4.2) | .656 |
| Men | 56% | 36% | 44% | < .001 |
| Widowed | 6% | 13% | 10% | .045 |
| Poorest social support quintile | 19% | 20% | 25% | .250 |
| Socioeconomics | ||||
| Grade-school education | 5% | 6% | 6% | .867 |
| Less than $20,000 income | 20% | 27% | 30% | .137 |
| Inner-city residence | 21% | 18% | 24% | .237 |
| Poorest rated neighborhood quality | 25% | 23% | 24% | .924 |
| Health habits | ||||
| Former smoker | 34% | 39% | 39% | .519 |
| urrent smoker | 35% | 26% | 32% | .052 |
| Body mass index | 28.7 (5.4) | 30.6 (7.0) | 30.1 (6.2) | .009 |
| Disease history | ||||
| Angina | 8% | 7% | 9% | .747 |
| Arthritis | 42% | 44% | 45% | .857 |
| Asthma | 10% | 9% | 10% | .926 |
| Cancer | 2% | 5% | 7% | .114 |
| Congestive health failure | 1% | 23% | 6% | .007 |
| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | 5% | 4% | 6% | .715 |
| Diabetes | 17% | 26% | 32% | .006 |
| Hypertension | 52% | 66% | 60% | .014 |
| Kidney disease | 4% | 4% | 3% | .837 |
| Stroke | 7% | 7% | 8% | .952 |
| Functional status | ||||
| CESD threshold met | 13% | 21% | 23% | .052 |
| MMSE score | 27.9 (3.2) | 28.1 (2.5) | 28.1 (2.2) | .801 |
| Expressed fear of falling | 22% | 26% | 29% | .368 |
| Lower extremity disability | 1.8 (2.4) | 2.1 (2.6) | 2.3 (2.8) | .254 |
| Poor self-rated hearing | 11% | 12% | 15% | .369 |
| Poor self-rated vision | 17% | 16% | 18% | .827 |
| SPPB summary score | 8.8 (2.8) | 8.2 (3.3) | 7.8 (3.2) | .024 |
Note: CES-D = Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Kohout, Berkman, & Evans, 1993); MMSE = Mini-Mental Status Examination (Molloy, Alemayehu, & Roberts, 1991); SPPB = Short Physical Performance Battery (Guralnik et al., 1994).