Table 1.
Sample characteristics of women in the Nurses’ Health Study (1992/1993), 29 to 71 years of age, by US age-specific percentilesa of the physical health (PCS) and mental health (MCS) component scores of the Short Form-36®
| Totals | Percentiles |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCS |
MCS |
||||||||
| <25th | 25–49th | 50–74th | >75th | <25th | 25–49th | 50–74th | >75th | ||
| Number of participants | 158,734 | 29,541 | 34,866 | 38,649 | 55,678 | 35,351 | 48,886 | 38,332 | 36,165 |
| Smoking status | |||||||||
| Never (%) | 55.6 | 56.3 | 55.0 | 57.0 | 54.5 | 54.2 | 55.4 | 56.8 | 55.9 |
| Former (%) | 32.0 | 30.3 | 31.7 | 31.3 | 33.5 | 30.0 | 31.9 | 32.2 | 33.8 |
| Current (%) | 12.5 | 13.4 | 13.3 | 11.8 | 12.0 | 15.8 | 12.8 | 11.0 | 10.4 |
| Years of smoking | |||||||||
| Mean (SD)b | 21.0 (12.2) | 20.3 (11.4) | 21.3 (12.3) | 20.5 (12.0) | 21.5 (12.7) | 20.4 (11.4) | 21.2 (12.5) | 21.0 (12.4) | 21.3 (12.6) |
| Years since quitting | |||||||||
| Mean (SD)c | 15.4 (10.8) | 13.4 (10.2) | 15.1 (10.9) | 15.2 (10.6) | 16.0 (11.0) | 13.9 (10.0) | 14.9 (10.9) | 15.5 (10.9) | 16.1 (11.0) |
| <3 (%) | 11.1 | 8.9 | 8.2 | 7.4 | 10.0 | 9.1 | 8.1 | 7.2 | |
| 3–7 (%) | 23.3 | 21.6 | 21.3 | 20.2 | 21.8 | 22.0 | 20.7 | 20.6 | |
| ≥8 (%) | 65.6 | 69.5 | 70.6 | 72.4 | 68.2 | 68.9 | 71.3 | 72.2 | |
| Cigarettes per dayd | |||||||||
| Mean (SD) | 16.8 (10.3) | 18.5 (10.8) | 17.2 (10.3) | 16.3 (10.1) | 15.9 (9.9) | 18.0 (10.8) | 16.5 (9.9) | 15.9 (10.0) | 16.5 (10.2) |
| 1–14 (%) | 43.7 | 37.7 | 42.0 | 45.2 | 47.4 | 39.5 | 44.1 | 47.6 | 45.1 |
| 15–24 (%) | 39.1 | 39.4 | 39.7 | 39.4 | 38.5 | 39.3 | 40.4 | 37.8 | 38.4 |
| ≥25 (%) | 17.2 | 22.9 | 18.4 | 15.4 | 14.1 | 21.3 | 15.6 | 14.7 | 16.5 |
| Live alone (%) | 4.9 | 6.2 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 4.7 | 7.4 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 3.8 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | |||||||||
| Mean (SD) | 25.6 (5.4) | 27.9 (7.0) | 26.5 (5.7) | 25.2 (4.8) | 24.2 (4.1) | 26.0 (5.8) | 25.6 (5.4) | 25.2 (5.1) | 25.8 (5.5) |
| <19 (%) | 2.9 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.6 |
| 19–30 (%) | 78.9 | 65.5 | 74.0 | 81.7 | 87.0 | 76.0 | 79.4 | 81.3 | 78.4 |
| >30 (%) | 18.3 | 31.8 | 23.6 | 15.5 | 9.7 | 20.9 | 17.7 | 15.9 | 19.1 |
| (met-hrs/wk) | |||||||||
| Mean (SD) | 20.2 (25.8) | 16.6 (23.6) | 17.8 (23.0) | 20.5 (25.2) | 23.5 (28.6) | 18.0 (24.1) | 19.3 (24.9) | 21.5 (26.6) | 22.4 (27.7) |
| Comorbid disease (%) | 34.6 | 44.3 | 39.2 | 31.3 | 28.8 | 35.1 | 34.9 | 32.1 | 36.3 |
| Tobacco-related comorbid disease (%)b | 13.6 | 18.8 | 16.1 | 11.9 | 10.4 | 13.5 | 13.8 | 12.3 | 14.7 |
a
Percentile cut-points using SF-36® normative scores for US females, according to age
b
Current and former smokers, n = 70,548
c
Former smokers
d
Current smokers
PCS = physical component summary score
MCS = mental component summary score
Met = metabolic