TABLE 3.

Baseline characteristics of REGARDS participants, stratified by quantity of daily television watching. Television watching levels available for 23,519 of 30,183 (77.9%) participants.

	Low Television Watching (≤1 hour/day) (n=4,615) (col %)	Medium Television Watching (1-3 hours/day) (n=11,587) (col %)	High Television Watching (≥4 hours/day (n=7,317) (col %)	P-value
Demographics
Age
<50 years	6.2	4.1	4.2	<0.001
50-59	29.1	24.6	23.6
60-69	36.6	37.8	39.9
70-79	21.7	25.8	25.3
≥80	6.4	7.7	7.0
Sex
Male	44.5	48.2	39.5	<0.001
Female	55.5	51.8	60.5
Race
White	69.0	70.9	49.0	<0.001
Black	31.0	29.1	51.0
Geographic Region
Non-Belt	44.6	43.2	43.6	0.001
“Stroke Belt”	33.8	34.0	36.0
“Stroke Buckle”	21.5	22.8	20.4
Income
<$20,000	14.0	12.6	26.9	<0.001
$20,000-34,000	19.3	24.0	28.0
$35,000-74,000	30.7	33.4	25.2
≥$75,000	24.1	18.2	7.4
Unknown	11.9	11.8	12.5
Education
Less than High School	9.0	8.1	17.3	<0.001
High School Graduate	21.5	24.0	32.3
Some College	23.2	28.4	27.1
College Graduate	46.2	39.5	23.3
Missing	0.0	0.0	0.1
Health Behaviors
Tobacco Use
Never	52.4	45.6	38.4	<0.001
Past	37.4	42.2	41.6
Current	9.8	11.8	19.7
Missing	0.5	0.4	0.3
Alcohol Use
None	58.9	57.6	64.9	<0.001
Moderate	35.8	36.4	28.8
Heavy	3.9	4.4	4.1
Missing	1.3	1.7	2.2
Obesity (abnormal BMI or WC)	43.3	49.6	61.2	<0.001
Missing	0.1	0.1	0.2
Mediterranean Diet Score (median, IQR)	5 (3-6)	4 (3-6)	4 (3-5)	<0.001
Missing	12.1	10.2	13.2
Chronic Medical Conditions
Chronic Kidney Disease	8.1	10.1	13.1	<0.001
Chronic Lung Disease	8.5	8.6	11.3	<0.001
Diabetes	17.0	19.0	27.2	<0.001
Hypertension	49.7	56.5	65.8	<0.001
Myocardial Infarction	10.7	11.8	14.0	<0.001
Stroke	4.4	4.8	8.2	<0.001

^*From Kruskall-Wallis test.