Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Nov 16.
Published in final edited form as: J Aging Health. 2017 Oct 27;31(4):555–579. doi: 10.1177/0898264317737893

Table 2.

The distribution of physiological measures and disability benefit outcomes among 9,595 observations in the Health and Retirement Study: 2006–2012

Mean (weighted) Mean (unweighted) Minimum Maximum Number of missing values
Disability benefit receipt
Receiving benefits 0.13 0.13 0 1 0
Demographics
Age 58.68 58.76 51.00 65.92 0
Female sex 0.52 0.58 0 1 0
Non-Hispanic white 0.76 0.64 0 1 21
Non-Hispanic black 0.11 0.20 0 1 21
Hispanic 0.09 0.13 0 1 21
Other race/ethnicity 0.04 0.03 0 1 21
Anthropometric measures
Height 66.24 65.82 48 78 139
Underweight 0.01 0.01 0 1 461
Normal weight 0.19 0.19 0 1 461
Overweight 0.34 0.33 0 1 461
Obese 0.46 0.48 0 1 461
Waist circumference 40.32 40.38 20.5 78.0 244
Measures of physical function
Grip strength 36.43 35.01 5.5 100 310
Lung function 425.36 409.78 70 890 208
Balance: Passed test 0.79 0.77 0 1 81
Pulse 71.41 71.68 37 141 296
Systolic blood pressure 127.54 128.32 73.33 226.00 296
Diastolic blood pressure 81.31 81.73 47.33 145.33 297
Biomarkers
Total cholesterol 203.39 202.66 85.89 478.82 977
HDL cholesterol 54.65 54.74 12.52 145.81 1,385
HbA1c 5.80 5.88 3.62 17.26 943
C-reactive protein (ln) 0.50 0.54 −2.21 2.30 1,840
Cystatin C 0.99 1.00 0.05 8.56 1,127
Telomere length (ln) 0.30 0.31 −0.47 1.25 8,115
Genetic markers
APOE gene: Risk alleles present 0.30 0.30 0 2 4,085
COMT gene: Risk allele present 0.24 0.24 0 1 4,085
FTO gene: Risk allele present 0.63 0.62 0 1 4,085
IL6 gene: Risk allele present 0.59 0.55 0 1 4,085
Medications
Taking cholesterol medication 0.35 0.35 0 1 41
Taking diabetes medication 0.15 0.17 0 1 141
Taking hypertension medication 0.41 0.43 0 1 211

Note: Genetics information was available only for the 2006 and 2008 waves, but for the people observed at more than one wave we assumed that genetics did not change. Telomere length was available only in 2008. To generate the weighted means, we adjusted the HRS physical measure and biomarker weights for propensity to consent to SSA data linkage.