Table 1.
Baseline Characteristics of Participants, Stratified by Leptin Tertile
| Covariates | Overall (N = 579)Mean ± SD or N (%) | Leptin Tertile (ng/mL)*,† | |||
| Low | Medium | High | p value‡ | ||
| Age (y) | 82.6±3.1 | 83.1±3.1 | 82.3±3.2 | 82.4±3.1 | .02 |
| White | 516 (89) | 187 (97) | 169 (88) | 160 (83) | <.01 |
| Education (y) | 12.9±2.6 | 13.2±2.5 | 13.0±2.8 | 12.3±2.6 | <.01 |
| Married | 181 (31) | 66 (34) | 60 (31) | 55 (28) | .78 |
| Alcohol consumption (glasses/week) | 1.2±3.3 | 1.5±3.2 | 1.0±2.7 | 1.2±3.9 | .34 |
| Current smokers | 10 (2) | 3 (2) | 1 (1) | 6 (3) | .14 |
| Number of blocks walked/day for exercise | 10.3±8.7 | 11.4±10.3 | 10.0±7.3 | 8.6±7.1 | .15 |
| Weight | 66.5±11.3 | 59.1±9.2 | 68.0±9.7 | 72.9±10.3 | <.01 |
| Body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) | <.01 | ||||
| Overweight (25 ≤ BMI <30) | 235 (41) | 56 (29) | 96 (50) | 83 (43) | |
| Obese (BMI ≥ 30) | 139 (24) | 11 (6) | 46 (24) | 82 (43) | |
| Diabetes | 64 (11) | 16 (8) | 23 (12) | 25 (13) | .31 |
| Depression | 47 (8) | 14 (7) | 14 (7) | 19 (10) | .56 |
| Stroke | 50 (9) | 18 (9) | 14 (7) | 18 (9) | .70 |
| Hypertension | 340 (59) | 95 (49) | 111 (58) | 134 (69) | <.01 |
*The range of values for leptin tertiles (ng/ml) is: low (.7, 11.4); medium (11.5, 24.8); high (25.0, 123.9)
† Leptin was analyzed on the log scale
‡ Analysis of variance or chi-square tests