TABLE 1.
Distribution of participant characteristics according to level of optimism
| Optimism |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | Low n = 332 | Moderate n = 298 | High n = 352 | p-value |
| Mean age (SD), years | 53.43 (11.71) | 56.55 (12.32) | 56.01 (11.28) | .002 |
| Sex | .27 | |||
| Men | 48.49% | 44.97% | 42.33% | |
| Women | 51.51% | 55.03% | 57.67% | |
| Race | .23 | |||
| White | 91.57% | 94.97% | 93.47% | |
| Non-white | 8.43% | 5.03% | 6.53% | |
| Education | < .001 | |||
| Less than high school | 5.42% | 2.35% | 2.56% | |
| High school degree | 26.51% | 20.81% | 15.06% | |
| Some college | 32.23% | 29.87% | 25.85% | |
| 4-year college degree or higher | 35.84% | 46.98% | 56.53% | |
| Mean household income (SD), US dollars | 68,006.96 (54,411.13) | 75,354.99 (58,081.43) | 84,756.40 (64,189.53) | .001 |
| Mean time between assessments (SD), days | 828.87 (452.58) | 831.31 (452.71) | 831.69 (451.33) | .996 |
| Chronic conditionsa | .90 | |||
| Yes | 64.16% | 64.77% | 63.07% | |
| No | 35.84% | 35.23% | 36.93% | |
| Mean body mass index (SD), kg/m2 | 29.74 (6.48) | 28.73 (5.51) | 28.78 (5.67) | .049 |
| Fruit and vegetable consumption | < .001 | |||
| 2 or fewer servings per day | 49.70% | 39.93% | 32.95% | |
| 3–4 servings per day | 34.04% | 37.58% | 42.33% | |
| 5 or more servings per day | 16.27% | 22.48% | 24.72% | |
| Multivitamin supplementation | .51 | |||
| Yes | 51.20% | 55.70% | 52.56% | |
| No | 48.80% | 44.30% | 47.44% | |
| Regular exercise | .009 | |||
| Yes | 74.10% | 83.89% | 80.11% | |
| No | 25.90% | 16.11% | 19.89% | |
| Smoking status | < .001 | |||
| Current smoker | 17.77% | 8.72% | 6.82% | |
| Past smoker | 30.72% | 36.58% | 32.67% | |
| Never smoker | 51.51% | 54.70% | 60.51% | |
Note: Percentages refer to the column percent of individuals within each optimism category with that characteristic, p-value comes from χ2 or analysis of variance tests.
a
Because our measure of chronic conditions included high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the proportion of participants with chronic conditions may appear relatively large; however, the prevalence in our sample is consistent with the prevalence of such conditions in middle-age to older adults living in the United States (50).