Table 1.
Characteristics of study sample
| All (n = 83,592) | Corticosteroid use |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| nonusers (n = 74,591) | users (n = 9,001) | ||
| Demographics | |||
| Age, yearsa | 44.2±12.3 | 44.1±12.3 | 45.2±12.6 |
| Sex, femalea | 49,174 (58.8) | 43,512 (58.3) | 5,662 (62.9) |
| Educational attainmenta | |||
| Low | 24,752 (29.6) | 21,998 (29.5) | 2,754 (30.6) |
| Middle | 32,879 (39.3) | 29,491 (39.5) | 3,388 (37.6) |
| High | 24,424 (29.2) | 21,747 (29.2) | 2,677 (29.7) |
| Other | 1,537 (1.8) | 1,355 (1.8) | 182 (2.0) |
| Use of psychotropic drugsa | 7,441 (8.9) | 6,331 (8.5) | 1,110 (12.3) |
| High-sensitive CRP, mg/La,b | 1.20 (2.20) | 1.20 (2.10) | 1.50 (2.90) |
| Lifestyle | |||
| Physical activity | |||
| 0 days per week | 4,071 (4.9) | 3,628 (4.9) | 443 (4.9) |
| 1–4 days per week | 38,632 (46.2) | 34,568 (46.3) | 4,064 (45.2) |
| ≥5 days per week | 40,889 (48.9) | 36,395 (48.8) | 4,494 (49.9) |
| Smokinga | |||
| Nonsmoker | 38,790 (46.4) | 34,428 (46.2) | 4,362 (48.5) |
| Former smoker | 26,098 (31.2) | 23,095 (31.0) | 3,003 (33.4) |
| Current smoker | 18,704 (22.4) | 17,068 (22.9) | 1,636 (18.2) |
| Alcohol usea | |||
| None | 18,490 (22.1) | 16,310 (21.9) | 2,180 (24.2) |
| ≤1 drink/day | 41,161 (49.2) | 36,701 (49.2) | 4,460 (49.6) |
| 1–2 drinks/day | 17,049 (20.4) | 15,356 (20.6) | 1,693 (18.8) |
| >2 drinks/day | 6,892 (8.3) | 6,224 (8.3) | 668 (7.4) |
| Cardiometabolic features | |||
| BMI, kg/m2a | 26.1±4.3 | 26.0±4.3 | 26.7±4.8 |
| Cardiovascular diseasesa | 1,762 (2.1) | 1,526 (2.0) | 236 (2.6) |
| Strokea | 555 (0.7) | 481 (0.6) | 74 (0.8) |
| Coronary heart diseasea | 1,253 (1.5) | 1,084 (1.5) | 169 (1.9) |
| Ruffigural fluency test (executive cognitive functioning) | |||
| Unique designsa | 81.3±23.3 | 81.5±23.3 | 79.9±23.4 |
| MINI (psychiatric disorders) | |||
| Mood and/or anxiety disordersa | 9,301 (11.1) | 8,064 (10.8) | 1,237 (13.7) |
| Mood disordersa | 2,802 (3.4) | 2,393 (3.2) | 409 (4.5) |
| Anxiety disordersa | 8,212 (9.8) | 7,138 (9.6) | 1,074 (11.9) |
| RAND36 (health-related quality of life) | |||
| Physical component summary scorea | 52.9±7.5 | 53.3±7.2 | 50.3±9.0 |
All values are depicted as median (interquartile range), mean ± SD, or numbers (percentage). BMI, body mass index; CRP, C-reactive protein.
a
Significant crude differences between nonusers and users
b
data on high-sensitive CRP were available in 45,395 participants including 40,695 nonusers and 4,700 users.