Table 1.

Ten-year trends in demographic, risk-behaviour and functional limitation status characteristics by the insurance group

Payer status	Medicaid		Medicare alone		Medicare comb.a		DVAb		Private		Other
Years	1995–96	2003–04	1995–96	2003–04	1995–96	2003–04	1995–96	2003–04	1995–96	2003–04	1995–96	2003–04
Number	32 238	50 722	16 881	29 503	35 364	59 386	1128	1444	19 054	27 323	28 435	33 945
Percentage of total	24.2	25.1	12.7	14.6	26.6	29.4	0.8	0.7	14.3	13.5	21.4	16.8
Demographics
Age (mean years)	57.6	59.7†	67.9	69.7†	70.6	73.7†	57.8	59.7†	51.1	51.7†	55.6	54.3†
Male gender	39.3%	42.8%†	56.2%	57.9%*	57.3%	58.1%*	82.7%	95.6%†	57.6%	58.1%	56.9%	59.4%†
Race
Caucasian	31.4%	33.1%†	55.9%	55.1%	75.7%	77.0%*	37.9%	50.8%†	54.0%	52.5%†	46.1%	41.3%†
African American	41.9%	38.5%†	30.6%	30.5%	14.7%	14.2%	39.1%	36.4%	29.4%	30.9%†	29.7%	32.0%†
Hispanic	18.0%	20.0%†	8.5%	11.0%†	4.1%	5.8%†	16.6%	9.6%†	9.0%	10.4%†	16.4%	19.5%†
Other	8.7%	8.4%*	5.1%	3.4%†	5.5%	3.1%†	6.5%	3.3%†	7.6%	6.3%†	7.9%	7.3%†
Unemployed	35.7%	32.3%†	15.1%	12.9%†	6.5%	5.4%†	32.5%	21.2%†	12.6%	11.1%†	30.4%	37.7%†
Risk behaviours
Smoking	7.0%	6.5%	5.9%	4.8%†	4.8%	3.5%†	11.1%	14.1%	5.9%	5.1%†	5.6%	5.9%
Substance abuse	4.5%	3.3%†	2.1%	1.4%†	1.1%	0.7%†	6.5%	7.4%	1.7%	1.4%	3.4%	3.7%
Functional limitations
Unable to ambulate	7.0%	6.5%	5.7%	5.0%	5.2%	4.5%*	7.4%	4.6%†	2.2%	1.5%†	2.8%	2.3%†
Unable to transfer	2.5%	2.7%	2.1%	1.9%	1.8%	1.5%	2.6%	1.7%	0.7%	0.4%†	0.9%	0.8%

^aMedicare combined group consists of Medicare plus any additional non-Medicaid insurance.

^bDVA, Department of Veterans Affairs.

^*10-year trend from 1995 to 2004 significant within the payer group, P < 0.01.

^†10-year trend from 1995 to 2004 significant within the payer group, P < 0.001.

Characteristics shown as percentage, unless otherwise noted.