. 2015 Nov 17;71(4):711–723. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbv106

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics at Baseline, Health and Retirement Study, 1998–2012 (N = 21,564)

	Continuously married		Remarried		Partnered		Divorced/separated		Widowed		Never married
	(n = 4,870 men; 3,721 women)		(n = 2,125 men; 1,278 women)		(n = 252 men; 143 women)		(n = 731 men; 1,241 women)		(n = 1,271 men; 5,223 women)		(n = 309 men; 400 women)
	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women
Entered nursing home	0.07	0.08**	0.06	0.07**	0.05	0.05	0.10*	0.14*	0.18*	0.23*	0.12*	0.16*
Nursing home stay > 3 months^a	0.02	0.03**	0.02	0.03**	—	—	0.06*	0.05*	0.10*	0.14*	0.07*	0.10*
Sociodemographics
Birth year	1930	1931**	1931*	1932^,*	1934*	1935*	1934*	1933^,*	1923*	1924*	1932*	1929^,*
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	0.87	0.87	0.84*	0.89**	0.81*	0.82*	0.70*	0.73*	0.83*	0.82*	0.83	0.71^,*
Non-Hispanic Black	0.05	0.05	0.08*	0.06**	0.10*	0.08*	0.17*	0.16*	0.11*	0.11*	0.12*	0.16*
Hispanic	0.06	0.06	0.05	0.03^,*	0.07	0.08	0.11*	0.09*	0.04*	0.05**	0.04	0.09^,*
Other	0.02	0.02	0.03	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.01	0.04^,*
Educational attainment
Less than high school	0.25	0.19**	0.22	0.21	0.25	0.25	0.28	0.25*	0.36*	0.35*	0.28	0.24*
High school	0.38	0.49**	0.39	0.49**	0.35	0.45**	0.41	0.44*	0.39	0.44^,*	0.33	0.38*
Some college or associate’s degree	0.11	0.14**	0.13*	0.15	0.16*	0.09^,*	0.14	0.14	0.11	0.11*	0.15	0.13
Bachelor’s degree or more	0.26	0.18**	0.26	0.15^,*	0.24	0.21**	0.17*	0.17	0.14*	0.10^,*	0.24	0.25*
Health and disability
Number of chronic conditions	2.23	2.25	2.31	2.48^,*	2.26	2.74^,*	2.33	2.76^,*	2.48*	2.63^,*	2.29	2.42*
ADL difficulties	0.28	0.29	0.30	0.33	0.24	0.30	0.42*	0.50*	0.60*	0.69^,*	0.35	0.49^,*
IADL difficulties	0.27	0.27	0.27	0.28	0.16*	0.24	0.37*	0.42*	0.58*	0.71^,*	0.37	0.46*
Economic resources
Medicaid	0.04	0.04	0.05	0.04	0.08*	0.16^,*	0.15*	0.21^,*	0.10*	0.14^,*	0.16*	0.20*
Nonhousing net worth ($10,000s)	42.57	44.05	37.75	37.79	35.60	34.70	27.84*	13.04^,*	22.71*	14.09^,*	35.08	14.77*
Own house	0.91	0.91	0.89*	0.89	0.81*	0.84*	0.56*	0.57*	0.67*	0.65*	0.64*	0.54^,*
Social ties
Number in household	2.30	2.26**	2.29	2.21^,*	2.20*	2.16*	1.38*	1.58^,*	1.52*	1.56*	1.37*	1.51*
Number of living children	2.95	2.99	4.47*	4.39*	4.10*	3.98*	3.14*	2.87**	2.98	3.03	0.24	0.55**
No future help available or don’t know	0.37	0.37	0.40*	0.33^,*	0.44*	0.35**	0.35	0.31*	0.28*	0.26*	0.39	0.39
Future help available	0.51	0.51	0.47*	0.55^,*	0.46*	0.51	0.52	0.52	0.49	0.46^,*	0.48	0.43*
Currently using help	0.12	0.12	0.13	0.12	0.10	0.14	0.13	0.17^,*	0.23*	0.28^,*	0.13	0.18*
Any living siblings	0.82	0.82	0.81	0.80	0.82	0.83	0.84	0.81	0.74*	0.73*	0.85	0.74^,*
Monthly contact with neighbors	8.13	7.77**	8.24	8.20	7.69	7.39	11.95*	9.32^,*	10.78*	10.35*	11.70*	11.56*

Notes: ADL = activities of daily living; IADL = instrumental activities of daily living.

^aIn the analysis of nursing home stays 3 months or longer, partnered adults were categorized as either divorced, widowed, or never married. In this analysis, there were 811 divorced men, 1,267 divorced women, 1,410 widowed men, 5,332 widowed women, 342 never married men, and 408 never married women.

*Statistically different from continuously married (same gender): p < .05. ^,**Statistically different from men: p < .05; Descriptive statistics are weighted.