Table 1.

Descriptive statistics, means, and standard deviations or percentages for individual-level characteristics, National Health Interview Survey, males, 1997–2003

Variable	Total	Non-Hispanic Whites (91 %)	Non-Hispanic Blacks (9 %)	p Value
	N = 27,164	N = 23,701	N = 3,463
Smoking Behavior
Never-smoker	33.1	32.8	35.7	.0000
Former smoker, quit 0–4 years ago	5.6	5.5	5.7
Former smoker, quit 5–9 years ago	4.4	4.4	4.5
Former smoker, quit 10–19 years ago	12.0	12.2	10.1
Former smoker, quit 20–29 years ago	11.7	12.0	8.8
Former smoker, quit 30+ years ago	13.8	14.5	7.1
Current smoker, <1 pack per day	7.3	6.2	18.1
Current smoker, 1+ packs per day	12.2	12.4	10.1
Body Mass Index
Underweight, BMI <18.5	0.7	0.7	1.0	.0000
Normal, BMI 18.5–24.9	27.8	27.6	30.0
Overweight, BMI 25–29.9	46.7	47.1	42.8
Obese I, BMI 30–34.9	18.5	18.5	18.5
Obese II and III, BMI 35+	6.3	6.1	7.8
Sociodemographic Characteristics
Mean age at baseline (SD)	62.776 (0.069)	62.894 (0.074)	61.610 (0.190)	.0000
Marital status
Never married	5.0	4.5	9.5	.0000
Currently married	76.3	78.1	58.6
Widowed/divorced/separated	18.7	17.3	32.0
Educational attainment
Less than high school (<12 years)	17.4	15.6	35.7	.0000
High school graduate (12 years)	31.4	31.5	30.0
1–3 years of college	23.7	24.0	20.5
4+ years of college	27.5	28.9	13.9
Mean family income (10,000s) (SD)	5.510 (0.035)	5.653 (0.037)	4.087 (0.105)	.0000
Region
Northeast	20.2	20.6	16.1	.0000
North Central	26.6	27.4	18.4
South	37.2	35.2	57.4
West	16.0	16.8	8.1
Mean Years of Follow-up
Alive (censored)	6.130	6.136	6.071
Dead	3.807	3.817	3.732

Source: Authors’ calculations based on 1997–2003 NHIS data linked to the National Death Index through 2006; p values correspond to t tests and chi-square tests for the equality of means/distributions of variables between non-Hispanic black and white males.