Table 1.
Description of the Health and Retirement Sample (HRS) at the 1992 Baseline (Mean or %)
| Variables | Whites | Hispanics | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demographics | |||
| Age | 55.8 | 55.5 | 55.7 |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 49.0 | 46.0 | 48.7 |
| Female | 51.0 | 54.0 | 51.3 |
| Nativity | |||
| Native born | 95.7 | 46.8 | 90.1 |
| Foreign born | 4.3 | 53.2 | 9.9 |
| Language of interview | |||
| English | 99.9 | 54.6 | 94.7 |
| Spanish | 0.1 | 45.4 | 5.3 |
| Socioeconomic status | |||
| Marital status | |||
| Married | 79.4 | 70.1 | 78.4 |
| Unmarried | 20.6 | 29.9 | 21.6 |
| Years of education | 12.7 | 8.4 | 12.2 |
| Annual household, $ (log transformed) | 10.6 | 9.9 | 10.5 |
| Health insurance | |||
| Insured | 90.1 | 65.1 | 87.3 |
| Uninsured | 9.9 | 34.9 | 12.7 |
| Baseline health/health behavior | |||
| Self-rated health (SRH) | |||
| Excellent | 24.5 | 14.6 | 23.4 |
| Very good | 31.2 | 14.4 | 29.3 |
| Good | 26.6 | 31.6 | 27.2 |
| Fair | 11.0 | 25.8 | 12.7 |
| Poor | 6.6 | 13.5 | 7.4 |
| Emotional well-being | |||
| Excellent | 21.0 | 14.5 | 20.3 |
| Very good | 31.1 | 19.6 | 29.8 |
| Good | 31.9 | 39.5 | 32.7 |
| Fair | 11.9 | 21.8 | 13.1 |
| Poor | 4.1 | 4.6 | 4.1 |
| Height (inches) | 67.3 | 64.7 | 67.0 |
| BMI | 26.8 | 27.9 | 27.2 |
| Chronic disease | |||
| Yes | 67.1 | 65.5 | 66.9 |
| No | 32.9 | 34.5 | 33.1 |
| Functional limitation | |||
| Yes | 40.3 | 40.1 | 40.3 |
| No | 59.7 | 59.9 | 59.7 |
| Currently smoking cigarettes | |||
| Yes | 27.3 | 24.1 | 27.7 |
| No | 72.7 | 75.9 | 72.3 |
| Physical exercises | |||
| Vigorous | 54.7 | 30.1 | 51.9 |
| Moderate/mild | 26.8 | 36.5 | 27.9 |
| None | 18.5 | 33.4 | 20.2 |
| Number of cases at the baseline | 6,248 | 806 | 7,054 |
| Number of deaths (1992–2008) | 1,374 | 176 | 1,550 |
| Percentage of deaths | 22.0 | 21.8 | 22.0 |
Note. The Health and Retirement Study.