Table 1.

The Characteristics of US Adults with and without Spine Conditions in 1998 and 2008

	1999			2008			P-value for Difference between Adults with Spine Conditions 1999 to 2008c
	Spine Conditions	No Spine Conditions	P-valueb,c	Spine Conditions	No Spine Conditions	P-valueb,c
No. of MEPS Respondents (sample)	941	16,457		1,110	22,269
Projected National Estimates
No. of US adults (millions)	11.9	192.0		13.6	216.8
% of US adult population	5.8	94.2		5.9	94.1
US Region (%)
Northeast	19.0	20.9		18.5	16.3
Midwest	22.6	25.3	0.17	21.4	30.0	<0.001	0.03
South	35.9	33.9		37.0	28.1
West	22.5	19.9		23.0	25.6
Sociodemographic Characteristics
Age (mean)	44.9	47.7	<0.001	46.0	49.9	<0.001	0.03
% female	51.9	58.0	0.01	51.2	56.4	0.01	0.53
Race/Ethnicity (%)
Hispanic	10.8	5.7		14.1	5.9
Non-Hispanic White	73.2	86.7	<0.001	67.3	83.8	<0.001	0.06
Non-Hispanic Black or African American	11.9	5.4		11.9	5.7
Other or multiple races	4.1	2.2		6.7	4.7
Marital status (%)
married	55.6	63.4		53.5	59.1
divorced, separated, or widowed	20.1	21.4	<0.001	20.3	23.4	<0.001	0.28
never married	24.3	15.1		26.2	17.5
Employment status (%)
ever unemployed (or retired) during year?	38.5	37.2	0.55	42.2	40.5	0.32	0.24
employed	61.5	62.8		57.8	59.5
Education (%)
high school graduate or less	70.9	67.7		66.6	59.6
some college or associate’s degree	15.4	17.2	0.24	16.7	20.1	0.01	<0.01
bachelor s or graduate degree	13.7	15.1		16.6	20.3
Health Insurance Coverage (%)
private	74.3	82.4		67.5	76.3
public	13.4	11.7	<0.001	16.7	15.9	<0.001	0.02
uninsured	12.3	5.8		15.8	7.8
Health Status Measures
“fair” or “poor” self-reported health status (%)	21.8	10.9	<0.001	19.0	13.0	<0.001	0.17
any self-reported limitaion (%)	38.7	22.0	<0.001	41.7	26.4	<0.001	0.28
any social limitation (%)	6.4	3.9	0.01	8.1	4.5	<0.001	0.23
any work, school, or home limitation (%)	12.8	6.6	<0.001	15.4	8.4	<0.001	0.14
any limitation in physical functioning (%)	16.7	8.3	<0.001	23.7	11.4	<0.001	<0.01

Abbreviations: MEPS, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

^aNo. of MEPS respondents includes adult (age ≥ 18 years) who were inscope and reported an ambulatory visit for primary ICD-9-CM condition related to spine conditions

^bP-values compare those adults with Spine Conditions to those No Spine Conditions

^bt-test used in comparison of means and χ² statistic used in comparison of proportions