Table 2.
Baseline characteristics among 7,758 participants ages ≥65 years in the 1998–2000 Health and Retirement Study, by baseline arthritis status*
| Baseline arthritis |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline (1998) characteristics |
Yes (n = 4,450) |
No (n = 3,308) |
P† |
| Demographic factors | |||
| Race/ethnicity | |||
| White | 86.6 | 87.4 | 0.071 |
| African American | 7.9 | 6.2 | |
| Hispanic | 4.0 | 4.7 | |
| Other | 1.5 | 1.6 | |
| Female sex | 63.8 | 53.5 | < 0.001 |
| Age, years | |||
| 65–74 | 55.8 | 61.4 | < 0.001 |
| 75–84 | 36.6 | 33.3 | |
| ≥85 | 7.6 | 5.3 | |
| Not married | 45.5 | 40.5 | 0.001 |
| Live alone | 33.6 | 30.0 | 0.015 |
| Health factors | |||
| Chronic conditions | |||
| None | 14.7 | 22.6 | < 0.001 |
| Cancer | 14.2 | 12.2 | 0.003 |
| Depressive symptoms | 36.5 | 29.1 | < 0.001 |
| Diabetes | 15.4 | 11.4 | < 0.001 |
| Heart disease | 26.2 | 18.1 | < 0.001 |
| Hypertension | 53.9 | 45.6 | < 0.001 |
| Pulmonary disease | 11.3 | 6.5 | < 0.001 |
| Obesity | 20.2 | 12.2 | < 0.001 |
| Stroke | 7.1 | 6.5 | 0.258 |
| Vision (poor/legally blind) | 5.6 | 3.6 | 0.003 |
| Higher level limitation(s) | |||
| Physical | 31.8 | 22.0 | < 0.001 |
| IADL | 7.2 | 4.0 | < 0.001 |
| Behavioral factors | |||
| Current smoking | 9.7 | 12.1 | 0.005 |
| Alcohol use ≥3 drinks/day | 1.7 | 2.7 | 0.012 |
| Lack of RVPA | 59.5 | 50.9 | < 0.001 |
| Medical access factors | |||
| Education <12 years | 31.0 | 26.6 | < 0.001 |
| Household income in the lowest quartile | 31.8 | 24.4 | < 0.001 |
| Family wealth in the lowest quartile | 22.7 | 17.0 | < 0.001 |
| Health insurance | |||
| Medicare only | 55.0 | 54.3 | < 0.001 |
| Private | 36.3 | 39.6 | |
| Other government | 8.0 | 5.2 | |
| None or missing | 0.7 | 0.9 | |
*
Values are the population percentage unless otherwise indicated. See Table 1 for definitions.
†
Chi-square test.