Table 2.

Descriptive statistics of independent variables given as percentages of total sample size, and p-values for pairwise baseline–follow-up comparisons for each variable.

Variable	Values	Baseline	Follow-up	P-value
Sex
	Male	47.6	–
	Female	52.4	–
Rural/urban status				<0.001
	Group 1 (rural)	8.4	6.5
	Group 2 (urban core)	86.3	86.2
	Group 3 (urban fringe)	1.8	2.3
	Group 4–6 (other)	3.6	4.0
Education
	Levels 1–4 (secondary or lower)	12.1	–
	Levels 5–8 (some post-secondary)	38.5	–
	Levels 9–11 (university degree)	49.4	–
Marital status				<0.001
	Single	8.3	8.6
	Married	73.9	72.8
	Widowed	6.5	7.4
	Divorced	9.1	8.8
	Separated	2.2	2.4
Number of friends		5.59 (5.69)	5.63 (6.16)	0.435
Loneliness				0.001
(how often feeling lonely)	Never (<1 day/week)	83.4	82.1
	Occasionally (1 or more days/week)	16.6	17.9
Retirement status				<0.001
	Retired	39.1	49.5
	Semi-retired	11.5	10.2
	Not retired		49.4	40.3
Household income				<0.001
(in thousands CAD)	<20	3.1	2.7
	20 to <50	17.6	17.0
	50 to <100	35.6	37.7
	100 to <150	22.5	21.8
	>150	21.2	20.8
Total savings
(in thousands CAD)	<50	17.9	–
	50 to <100	14.8	–
	100 to <1,000	53.5	–
	>1,000	11.9	–
Smoking
	Groups 1–3	7.5	–
	(daily to occasional smoker)
	Group 4	39.1	–
	(former daily smoker, non-smoker now)
	Group 5	21.9	–
	(former occasional smoker, non-smoker now)
	Group 6	31.5	–
	(never smoked)
Alcohol consumption				<0.001
	Groups 1–4	63.0	65.3
	(once a week or more often)
	Groups 5–8 (never to 2–3 a month)	37.0	34.7
	(never to 2–3 a month)

Percentages for some groups of education level, rural/urban status, type of smoker, and alcohol consumption are reported jointly; analyses are conducted on all groups.