Table 1.

Distribution of selected characteristics of MESA study participants overall and by racial/ethnic group at baseline examination: 2000–2002

Covariates	Overall (N=6256), %	Whites (n=2450), %	Blacks (n=1642),%	Hispanics (n=1400),%	Chinese (n=764), %	P-value a
Age Categories (years)						0.1863
45 – 54	29.0	28.1	29.7	30.9	27.0
55 – 64	27.9	27.6	28.6	28.0	27.6
65 – 74	29.6	30.4	29.9	27.5	30.1
75 – 84	13.5	14.0	11.8	13.6	15.3
Gender						0.0214
Male	47.4	48.2	44.2	48.9	49.0
Female	52.6	51.8	55.9	51.1	51.1
Education Categories						<.0001
<HS diploma	17.8	4.8	11.1	44.6	24.6
HS diploma	17.6	16.2	18.3	20.3	16.1
Some College/ Tech school	23.5	24.0	28.9	21.6	13.7
College degree +	41.1	55.1	41.8	13.5	45.6
Income Categories						<.0001
≤$24,999	31.3	15.8	30.2	49.9	49.4
$25,000–49,999	28.6	26.3	31.9	32.4	22.0
$50,000–74,999	17.1	20.8	20.0	10.5	11.3
$75,000+	23.0	39.2	18.0	7.2	17.4
Health Insurance						<.0001
Yes	91.2	97.4	93.9	82.6	81.8
No	8.8	2.7	6.2	17.4	18.2
Smoking status						<.0001
Never	50.5	44.2	45.9	53.7	75.1
Former	36.6	44.3	36.5	32.9	19.4
Current	12.8	11.5	17.7	13.4	5.5
BMI Categories						<.0001
Non-obese (<30 kg/m2)	68.1	72.1	54.3	62.4	95.6
Obese (≥30 kg/m2)	31.9	27.9	45.7	37.6	4.5
Diabetes Status						<.0001
Non- diabetic	87.6	94.2	82.8	82.1	86.5
Diabetic	12.5	5.8	17.2	17.9	13.5
Chronic Burden						<.0001
0	38.4	35.7	34.3	37.7	57.6
1	31.0	32.7	30.2	32.3	24.6
2 or more	30.6	31.6	35.5	30.0	17.8
Perceived Discrimination						<.0001
0	57.8	62.4	38.7	60.1	80.1
1	22.3	23.7	25.6	21.6	12.0
2 or more	19.9	14.0	35.7	18.3	7.9

^aP value from Chi-square test of independence for categorical variables and race/ethnicity

MESA- Multi Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis; HS- High School; BMI- Body Mass Index