Table 3.
Sociodemographic, lifestyle and health characteristics of the ELSA-HCAP sample
| Overall sample | Men | Women | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean (SD)/% | Mean (SD)/% | Mean (SD)/% | P-value | |
| n/variables | 1273 | 573 (45%) | 700 (55%) | |
| Age | 75.3 (6.6) | 75.1 (6.4) | 75.4 (6.7) | 0.83 |
| Educational attainment | ≤0.001 | |||
| No qualification | 37.5% | 33.2% | 40.1% | |
| Education to age 16 | 17.2% | 15.7% | 18.5% | |
| Education to age 18 | 33.5% | 34.4% | 32.8% | |
| Degree | 11.8% | 16.8% | 7.8% | |
| Wealth | ≤0.001 | |||
| Lowest | 33.6% | 28.2% | 38.1% | |
| Medium | 33.1% | 33.4% | 32.9% | |
| Highest | 33.3% | 38.5% | 29.3% | |
| Geographical region | 0.91 | |||
| North | 5.8% | 5.8% | 5.9% | |
| Yorkshire | 10.5% | 10.3% | 10.6% | |
| East Midlands | 13.0% | 12.6% | 13.4% | |
| East Anglia | 11.1% | 10.8% | 11.3% | |
| South East | 11.9% | 12.0% | 11.7% | |
| South West | 12.6 | 13.8% | 11.6% | |
| West Midlands | 7.1% | 7.0% | 7.1% | |
| North West | 17.1% | 18.0% | 16.4% | |
| Wales | 11.0% | 9.8% | 12% | |
| Depressive symptomsa | 2.9% | 2.3% | 3.4% | 0.22 |
| Poor eyesight | 4.1% | 4.1% | 4.2% | 0.91 |
| Poor hearing | 7.0% | 8.2% | 6.0% | 0.13 |
| Poor olfaction | 7.3% | 7.5% | 7.2% | 0.83 |
| Poor general health | 10.1% | 10.0% | 10.1% | 0.86 |
| Cardiovascular condition | 4.8% | 5.8% | 4.0% | 0.15 |
| Diabetes | 5.3% | 5.4% | 5.2% | 0.84 |
| Hypertension | 15.0% | 15.0% | 15.0% | 0.99 |
| Stroke | 2.1% | 2.8% | 1.6% | 0.13 |
| Cancer | 4.8% | 5.2% | 4.4% | 0.51 |
| Respiratory disease | 4.6% | 5.8% | 3.6% | 0.06 |
| Activities of daily living | ||||
| Difficulty dressing | 11.8% | 11.3% | 12.2% | 0.65 |
| Difficulty walking | 6.9% | 5.9% | 7.8% | 0.24 |
| Difficulty bathing | 10.9% | 9.3% | 12.2% | 0.10 |
| Difficulty eating | 2.0% | 2.6% | 1.4% | 0.13 |
| Difficulty getting out of bed | 4.9% | 4.4% | 5.3% | 0.44 |
| Difficulty using toilet | 3.9% | 3.3% | 4.4% | 0.30 |
| Instrumental activities of daily living | ||||
| Difficulty using map | 7.2% | 5.6% | 8.5% | 0.05 |
| Difficulty recognizing danger | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1.4% | 0.37 |
| Difficulty preparing a meal | 6.7% | 5.9% | 7.3% | 0.33 |
| Difficulty shopping | 12.9% | 9.6% | 15.6% | ≤0.001 |
| Difficulty making calls | 4.2% | 4.9% | 3.6% | 0.25 |
| Difficulty communicating | 4.7% | 5.4% | 4.2% | 0.29 |
| Difficulty taking medication | 4.5% | 4.2% | 4.7% | 0.64 |
| Difficulty working around | 17.8% | 12.9% | 21.8% | ≤0.001 |
| house/gardening | ||||
| Difficulty managing money | 7.2% | 6.6% | &0 .6% | 0.51 |
| Sedentary lifestyle | 10.6% | 10.3% | 11.0% | 0.67 |
| Smoking | 8.2% | 8.6% | 7.9 | ≤0.001 |
| Drinking (daily) | 20.7% | 27.2% | 15.2% | ≤0.001 |
| Married/living with partner | 64.6% | 75.0% | 54.3% | ≤0.001 |
| Feels lonely | 6.8% | 4.3% | 9.1% | ≤0.001 |
ELSA-HCAP: English Longitudinal Study of Ageing-Harmonised Cognitive Assessment Protocol.
a
Depressive symptoms were ascertained using the threshold of 9 on the 11-item version of the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D);