Table 1.
Descriptive characteristics of study sample by age groups
| Characteristic | Total | Young-old | Old-old | P value* |
| n=5493 | n=4884 | n=609 | ||
| Gender n (%) | 0.462 | |||
| Male | 2278 (41.5) | 2017 (41.3) | 261 (42.9) | |
| Female | 3215 (58.5) | 2867 (58.7) | 348 (57.1) | |
| Residence n (%) | 0.087 | |||
| Rural | 4242 (77.2) | 3755 (76.9) | 487 (80.0) | |
| Urban | 1251 (22.8) | 1129 (23.1) | 122 (20.0) | |
| Marital status n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Couple | 4291 (78.1) | 3959 (81.1) | 332 (54.5) | |
| Single† | 1202 (21.9) | 925 (18.9) | 277 (45.5) | |
| Education n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| No education | 1808 (32.9) | 1484 (30.4) | 324 (53.2) | |
| Primary school | 2438 (44.4) | 2217 (45.4) | 221 (36.3) | |
| Secondary school | 877 (16.0) | 847 (17.3) | 30 (4.9) | |
| High school and above | 370 (6.7) | 336 (6.9) | 34 (5.6) | |
| Employment n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Employed | 1421 (25.9) | 1393 (28.5) | 28 (4.6) | |
| Unemployed | 2931 (53.4) | 2461 (50.4) | 470 (77.2) | |
| Retired | 1141 (20.8) | 1030 (21.1) | 111 (18.2) | |
| Income n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Q1 | 1460 (26.6) | 1248 (25.6) | 212 (34.8) | |
| Q2 | 1366 (24.9) | 1213 (24.8) | 153 (25.1) | |
| Q3 | 1292 (23.5) | 1171 (24.0) | 121 (19.9) | |
| Q4 | 1375 (25.0) | 1252 (25.6) | 123 (20.2) | |
| Smoking n (%) | 0.104 | |||
| Never-smoker | 3883 (70.7) | 3440 (70.4) | 442 (72.6) | |
| Ex-smoker | 748 (13.6) | 659 (13.5) | 89 (14.6) | |
| Current smoker | 863 (15.7) | 785 (16.1) | 78 (12.8) | |
| Drinking n (%) | 0.244 | |||
| Abstainer | 4143 (75.4) | 3669 (75.1) | 474 (77.8) | |
| Ex-drinker | 465 (8.5) | 414 (8.5) | 51 (8.4) | |
| Drinker | 885 (16.1) | 801 (16.4) | 84 (13.8) | |
| No of weekly exercise times n (%) | 0.001 | |||
| ≤1 | 2159 (39.3) | 1881 (38.5) | 278 (45.6) | |
| ≥2 | 3334 (60.7) | 3003 (61.5) | 331 (54.4) | |
| No of chronic conditions n (%) | ||||
| None | 1578 (28.7) | 1373 (28.1) | 205 (33.7) | <0.001 |
| 1 | 1981 (36.1) | 1749 (35.8) | 232 (38.1) | |
| ≥2 (multimorbidity) | 1934 (35.2) | 1762 (36.1) | 172 (28.2) | |
| BMI n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Underweight | 204 (3.7) | 165 (3.4) | 39 (6.4) | |
| Normal | 2821 (51.4) | 2441 (50.0) | 380 (62.4) | |
| Overweight | 2064 (37.6) | 1905 (39.0) | 159 (26.1) | |
| Obesity | 404 (7.4) | 373 (7.6) | 31 (5.1) | |
| WC n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Normal | 2335 (42.5) | 2037 (41.7) | 298 (48.9) | |
| Central obesity | 3158 (57.5) | 2847 (58.3) | 311 (51.1) | |
| WHR n (%) | 0.832 | |||
| Normal | 855 (15.6) | 762 (15.6) | 93 (15.3) | |
| Central obesity | 4638 (84.4) | 4122 (84.4) | 516 (84.7) |
Young-old means aged 65–79, old-old means aged 80 or over.
*χ2.
†Single, not married/divorced/widowed or others.
BMI, body mass index; WC, waist circumference; WHR, waist-to-hip ratio.