Table 1.
Demographic characteristics of the subjects (n = 9886).
| Variables | Employed a (n = 1846) |
Unemployed a (n = 8040) |
All (n = 9886) |
χ[2]/t-Test p-Value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | ||
| Gender | |||||||
| Male | 844 | 45.7 | 2712 | 33.7 | 3556 | 36.0 | <0.001 * |
| Female | 1002 | 54.3 | 5328 | 66.3 | 6330 | 64.0 | |
| Age in years | |||||||
| Mean (SD) | 42.69 | (9.61) | 46.03 | (11.31) | 45.41 | (10.5) | <0.001 * |
| Education (n = 4128) | |||||||
| ≤Elementary school | 55 | 7.8 | 717 | 21.0 | 772 | 18.7 | <0.001 * |
| Junior high school | 166 | 23.4 | 888 | 26.0 | 1054 | 25.5 | |
| Senior high school | 353 | 49.8 | 1378 | 40.3 | 1731 | 41.9 | |
| ≥University | 135 | 19.0 | 436 | 12.7 | 571 | 13.8 | |
| Residence | |||||||
| Community dwelling | 1824 | 99.0 | 7519 | 93.7 | 9343 | 94.7 | <0.001 * |
| Institution | 18 | 1.0 | 506 | 6.3 | 524 | 5.3 | |
| Urbanization level b | |||||||
| Core city | 460 | 24.9 | 1795 | 22.3 | 2255 | 22.8 | 0.015 * |
| City | 614 | 33.3 | 2517 | 31.3 | 3131 | 31.7 | |
| Boom town | 388 | 21.0 | 1783 | 22.2 | 2171 | 22.0 | |
| Traditional industrial | 105 | 5.7 | 477 | 5.9 | 582 | 5.9 | |
| General town | 211 | 11.4 | 1096 | 13.6 | 1307 | 13.2 | |
| Aging town | 40 | 2.2 | 217 | 2.7 | 257 | 2.6 | |
| Rural town | 28 | 1.5 | 155 | 1.9 | 183 | 1.8 | |
| Severity of impairment | |||||||
| Mild | 1180 | 63.9 | 3837 | 47.7 | 5017 | 50.7 | 0.015 * |
| Moderate | 578 | 31.3 | 3342 | 41.6 | 3920 | 39.7 | |
| Severe | 80 | 4.3 | 764 | 9.5 | 844 | 8.5 | |
| Profound | 8 | 0.4 | 97 | 1.2 | 105 | 1.1 | |
* Significant level <0.05. a ‘Employed’ includes people who are hired or self-employed, whilst ‘unemployed’ includes volunteers, students, housekeepers, retired people, and those unemployed for health reasons. b The current definitions of urbanized areas in Taiwan, according to the ‘ROC Statistical Area Standard Classification’ of the Executive Yuan, are as follows: 1. Population of more than 20,000 people. 2. Areas covered by contiguous areas. 3. Two or more neighboring settlements whose populations total more than 20,000. We use the indicators of ‘population density’, ‘educational level’, ‘percentage of population aged ≥ 65 years’, ‘percentage of population aged 15–64’, ‘percentage of industrial employed’ and ‘percentage of employed population’; these are divided into the seven groups of ‘core city’, ‘city’, ‘boom town’, ‘traditional industrial’, ‘general town’, ‘aging town’, and ‘rural town’, with the ‘aging town’ and ‘rural town’ categories then being merged into a single class, to provide a total of six grades.