Table 1.

Description of Sample Characteristics by Antidepressant Use Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, 2001–2005

	Total Sample		Antidepressant Use
			No	Short-term	Long-Term	Sig
	N	Wt %	Wt%	Wt%	W%
ALL	10,134	100.0	81.5	10.3	8.3
General Health						***
Excellent	1,954	20.2	89.4	6.7	3.9
Very good	3,226	32.8	84.8	8.9	6.2
Good	3,230	31.3	80.8	10.3	8.9
Fair	1,336	12.4	68.7	15.9	15.3
Poor	349	3.2	53.6	24.1	22.3
Functional Status: ADL a						***
Not limited	7,719	78.7	84.6	8.8	6.6
1–2	1,739	15.7	72.1	14.5	13.4
3 and above	667	5.6	63.5	19.3	17.2
Body Mass Index Category						**
Under/Normal	4,540	43.5	81.1	11.1	7.7
Overweight	3,951	39.8	82.7	9.2	8.1
Obesity	1,578	16.7	79.2	10.7	10.1
Smoking Status
Current smoker	1,116	11.8	79.4	12.1	8.5
Past smoker	4,761	47.2	82.1	9.7	8.2
Never smoked	4,243	41.0	81.4	10.4	8.2
Hypertension						***
No	4,701	47.6	84.3	9.3	6.3
Yes	5,433	52.4	78.8	11.1	10.1
Depression						***
No	9,191	91.1	86.4	8.2	5.4
Yes	625	5.8	31.4	30.9	37.6

Note: Analytic sample consists of Medicare beneficiaries who were followed for 3-years and were first interviewed either in 1999, or 2000 or,2001 or 2002 or 2003, lived in the community.

Asterisks represent significant group differences between antidepressant use and subject characteristics based on chi-square tests. Long-term use represents antidepressant prescriptions reported for all 3-years; short-term use represents antidepressant prescriptions reported in one or two years.

^aADL: Activities of daily living;

Wt: Weighted. HS: High School

^***p < .001;

^**.001 ≤ p < .01;

^*.01 ≤ p < .05