Table 1.

Comparison of the characteristics between the Elderly Health Centre cohort and the age-matched general populations

	Elderly Health Centre cohort (2001–2012)			Age-matched Hong Kong general population (2006)			Age-matched Hong Kong general population (2011)
	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women	Total
Persons (number)	19 923	34 885	54 808	393 412	459 384	852 796	438 257	503 055	941 312
Age group (years)
65–69	40.7	53.0	48.5	31.7	25.2	28.2	27.7	22.4	24.9
70–74	35.6	29.3	31.6	28.6	25.4	26.9	26.6	22.6	24.5
75–79	16.5	12.4	13.9	21.0	20.9	21.0	22.1	21.5	21.8
80–84	5.7	4.1	4.7	11.4	14.8	13.2	14.2	16.6	15.5
≥85	1.5	1.3	1.4	7.3	13.6	10.7	9.3	16.8	13.3
Cohen effect size*				0.36	0.73	0.56	0.47	0.84	0.67
Gender
Men	..	..	36.4	..	..	47.7	..	..	46.7
Women	..	..	63.6	..	..	52.3	..	..	53.3
Cohen effect size*						0.23			0.21
Marital status
Never married	2.7	2.5	2.6	4.8	2.9	3.7	4.1	2.6	3.3
Married	88.7	56.9	68.4	79.8	46.4	61.8	81.5	45.7	62.4
Widowed/separated/divorced/others	8.6	40.6	29.0	15.4	50.7	34.6	14.4	51.7	34.3
Cohen effect size*				0.22	0.21	0.14	0.19	0.23	0.12
Educational level
Primary or below	53.9	76.0	68.0	64.8	83.8	75.0	58.3	78.3	69.0
Secondary and above	46.1	24.0	32.0	35.2	16.2	25.0	41.7	21.7	31.0
Cohen effect size*				0.23	0.21	0.16	0.09	0.06	0.02
Employment status
Unemployed/retired/home-makers/others	90.6	97.2	94.8	NA	NA	93.0	NA	NA	93.2
Working (full-time or part-time)	9.4	2.8	5.2	NA	NA	7.0	NA	NA	6.8
Cohen effect size*						0.07			0.06
Type of housing
Public and subsidised housing	45.3	47.4	46.6	NA	NA	57.7	NA	NA	56.2
Private housing (rented or self-owned)	53.4	51.2	52.0	NA	NA	41.3	NA	NA	42.8
Others (excluding institutions)	1.2	1.4	1.4	NA	NA	1.0	NA	NA	1.1
Cohen effect size*						0.23			0.19
Smoking†
Non-smoker	42.8	93.6	75.1
Ex-smoker	42.3	4.6	18.3	{75.8}	{97.0}	{86.8}	{82.9}	{98.2}	{90.8}
Current smoker	14.9	1.9	6.6	24.2	3.0	13.2	17.1	1.8	9.2
Cohen effect size*				0.22	0.06	0.19	0.06	0.01	0.09
Self-rated health‡
Better	6.7	7.0	6.9	NA	NA	5.5	NA	NA	2.8
More or less the same	62.5	56.6	58.7	NA	NA	61.4	NA	NA	65.8
Worse	30.7	36.4	34.3	NA	NA	33.1	NA	NA	31.4
Cohen effect size*						0.07			0.27

Unless otherwise indicated, figures reported in columns refer to the percentage of population.

Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding of figures.

*Cohen effect sizes have three levels: 0.1 for small, 0.3 for medium and 0.5 for large.³⁶

†Figures were collected from two thematic household surveys in 2005 and 2010, respectively, which covered those aged 60 years and above. Current smokers refer to daily cigarette smokers in the Thematic Household Surveys; non-current smoker are represented in figures following the curly brackets.

‡Figures were collected from two thematic household surveys in 2005/2006 and 2009/2010, respectively.

.., not applicable; NA, not available.