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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Psychosom Med. 2010 Jul 16;72(8):817–822. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181eb33e9

Table 1.

Demographics and Clinical Characteristics of the 1999 Large Health Survey of Veterans (LHS) (n=559,985)

Characteristic Percentage or Mean (standard deviation)

Age 64.1 (12.9)

Race
White 84.9%
African American 9.4%
Hispanic 4.8%
Other 0.9%

Gender, % male 95.9%

Schizophrenia diagnosis 3.1%

Bipolar disorder diagnosis 1.9%

Major depressive disorder diagnosis 5.1%

Other depression diagnosis 5.5%

PTSD diagnosis 6.2%

Alcohol abuse or dependence diagnosis 4.0%

Drug abuse or dependence diagnosis 1.9%

Medical co-morbidity index (number of
diagnoses) (n=501,161)
4.4 (2.9)

BMI (kg/ m2), mean (SD) (n=548,480) 28. 5 (5.0)
% underweight (BMI < 18.5) 1.0%
% normal weight (BMI 18.5–25.0) 23.2%
% overweight (BMI 25.0–30.0) 44.3%

% obese (BMI >30) 31.5%

% of subjects who have smoked more than
100 cigarettes in lifetime (n=554,662)
78.1%

Current smoking (n= 554,231)
Every day 20.4%
Some days 5.8%
Not at all 73.8%

Frequency of exercise (intense and long
enough to work up a sweat) (n=553, 084)
None 39.9%
Less than once per week 16.7%
1–2 times per week 16.6%
3–4 times per week 14.9%
5 or more times per week 11.9%