Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of Cognitive Function, Medication Utilization, and Control Variables Among U.S. Adults Aged 60+. Data Source: NHANES 2011-2012 and 2013-2014.

	All respondents	Number of medications with cognitive side effects taken by respondents				P-value a
		None	1 medication	2 medications	3+ medications
Panel A: Cognitive function b
Cognitive functioning assessments (mean score)
Delayed word recall (N=3,123)	6.25	6.37	6.14	5.97	5.78	p=0.009
Animal fluency (N=3,107)	18.12	18.62	17.75	17.58	16.71	p=0.002
Digit symbol substitution (N=3,012)	52.14	54.33	52.10	49.90	46.91	p<0.001
Average score of three tests (N=2,935)	25.51	26.53	25.49	24.54	23.40	p<0.001
Self-reporting cognitive function (proportion)
Had confusion/memory loss last 12mo (N=3,175)	0.14	0.09	0.11	0.18	0.30	p<0.001
Had trouble remembering last 7 days (N=3,171)	0.20	0.16	0.17	0.26	0.30	p=0.006
Panel B: Medication utilization, socio-demographic characteristics and health conditions c
Whether taking drugs WITH cognitive side effects (proportion)
None	0.38
1 drug	0.34
2 drugs	0.18
3+ drugs	0.10
Whether taking drugs WITHOUT cognitive side effects (proportion)						p<0.001
None	0.18	0.34	0.12	0.06	0.03
1 drug	0.18	0.26	0.16	0.11	0.05
2 drugs	0.17	0.16	0.19	0.21	0.07
3+ drugs	0.47	0.24	0.52	0.62	0.85
Race & ethnicity (proportion)						p=0.036
Non-Hispanic White	0.79	0.76	0.79	0.81	0.83
Hispanic	0.07	0.09	0.06	0.07	0.06
Non-Hispanic Black	0.09	0.09	0.09	0.08	0.07
Non-Hispanic others	0.05	0.06	0.05	0.04	0.04
Female (proportion)	0.55	0.54	0.51	0.58	0.63	p=0.015
Age (proportion)						p<0.001
60-69	0.55	0.61	0.52	0.49	0.56
70-79	0.30	0.27	0.33	0.32	0.26
80+	0.15	0.12	0.16	0.19	0.19
Marital status (proportion)						p=0.093
Married or living with partner	0.64	0.62	0.66	0.66	0.62
Widowed, divorced, separated	0.32	0.32	0.30	0.32	0.34
Never married	0.04	0.06	0.04	0.03	0.04
Education (proportion)						p=0.019
Less than high school	0.17	0.14	0.17	0.21	0.19
High school graduate	0.22	0.21	0.23	0.23	0.21
Some college or AA degree	0.31	0.32	0.31	0.29	0.34
College graduate or above	0.30	0.34	0.29	0.27	0.26
Poverty (proportion)						p=0.385
<100% poverty threshold	0.10	0.10	0.09	0.11	0.11
Chronic conditions (proportion)
Asthma	0.14	0.12	0.12	0.15	0.30	p<0.001
Arthritis	0.50	0.38	0.48	0.65	0.75	p<0.001
Cancer	0.24	0.22	0.24	0.25	0.28	p=0.354
Congestive heart failure	0.07	0.04	0.07	0.12	0.11	p<0.001
Coronary heart disease	0.09	0.02	0.12	0.15	0.16	p<0.001
Heart attack	0.08	0.03	0.09	0.15	0.12	p<0.001
Angina	0.06	0.02	0.05	0.11	0.13	p<0.001
Emphysema	0.05	0.03	0.03	0.08	0.09	p=0.002
Bronchitis	0.08	0.06	0.07	0.11	0.10	p=0.169
Stroke	0.07	0.05	0.07	0.08	0.09	p=0.028
Hypertension	0.40	0.39	0.41	0.37	0.42	p=0.688
Diabetes	0.21	0.10	0.26	0.28	0.30	p<0.001
Mental Distress (K6 >= 13) (proportion)	0.08	0.04	0.07	0.10	0.19	p<0.001
Obese (BMI >= 30) (proportion)	0.38	0.32	0.37	0.43	0.50	p=0.002

^a:P-value indicates if means are significantly different across respondents who take none, one, two, or at least three medications with cognitive side effects, based on linear least-squared regression and survey weights.

^b:Although this study includes 3,177 adults aged 60 and older, the sample size for each cognitive measure may vary due to missing data.

^c:All medication utilization, socio-demographic and health conditions estimates are based on a full sample of 3,177 adults aged 60 and older, of which 1,252 did not consume any medications with cognitive side effects, 1,028 used one medication with cognitive side effects, 584 used two medications with cognitive side effects, and 313 used at least three medications with side effects in the past month.