Table 1.
Summary characteristics of the total sample and for vulnerable persons identified by the three aging metrics, CHARLS 2011/2012 and NHANES 1999–2002
| Characteristics | CHARLS | NHANES | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Vulnerable persons | Total | Vulnerable persons | |||||
| CI-PF | FI | MCR | CI-PF | FI | MCR | |||
| N | 3929 | 85 | 653 | 770 | 3850 | 104 | 1035 | 167 |
| Age, mean ± SD | 67.4 ± 6.3 | 73.2 ± 7.8 | 68.7 ± 7.1 | 66.0 ± 5.4 | 65.6 ± 9.6 | 72.0 ± 7.3 | 69.6 ± 9.3 | 71.6 ± 9.4 |
| Male, % | 2102 (53.5) | 28 (32.9) | 269 (41.2) | 319 (41.4) | 1927 (50.1) | 46 (44.2) | 468 (45.2) | 83 (49.7) |
| Residence, rural, % | 2427 (61.8) | 65 (76.5) | 435 (66.6) | 533 (69.2) | ─ | ─ | ─ | ─ |
| Race/Ethnicity a, % | ||||||||
| Non-Hispanic white | ─ | ─ | ─ | ─ | 2130 (56.6) | 47 (46.1) | 545 (53.6) | 84 (51.5) |
| Non-Hispanic black | ─ | ─ | ─ | ─ | 673 (17.9) | 20 (19.6) | 194 (19.1) | 23 (14.1) |
| Hispanic | ─ | ─ | ─ | ─ | 957 (25.5) | 35 (34.3) | 278 (27.3) | 56 (34.4) |
| Education b, % | ||||||||
| Category 1 | 1296 (33.0) | 61 (71.8) | 269 (41.2) | 334 (43.4) | 1496 (39.0) | 71 (68.3) | 526 (51.0) | 90 (54.9) |
| Category 2 | 1859 (47.3) | 24 (28.2) | 297 (45.5) | 352 (45.7) | 868 (22.6) | 17 (16.3) | 213 (20.7) | 23 (14.0) |
| Category 3 | 511 (13.0) | 0 | 60 (9.2) | 71 (9.2) | 799 (20.8) | 8 (7.7) | 184 (17.8) | 28 (17.1) |
| Category 4 | 195 (5.0) | 0 | 19 (2.9) | 11 (1.4) | 677 (17.6) | 8 (7.7) | 108 (10.5) | 23 (14.0) |
| Category 5 | 68 (1.7) | 0 | 8 (1.2) | 2 (0.3) | ─ | ─ | ─ | ─ |
| Disease counts c, % | ||||||||
| 0 | 1116 (28.4) | 23 (27.1) | 40 (6.0) | 173 (22.5) | 805 (20.9) | 1 (1.0) | 14 (1.4) | 12 (7.2) |
| 1 | 1252 (31.9) | 30 (35.3) | 107 (16.0) | 252 (32.7) | 1138 (29.6) | 17 (16.3) | 126 (12.2) | 20 (12.0) |
| 2 | 885 (22.5) | 17 (20.0) | 166 (24.8) | 178 (23.1) | 961 (25.0) | 19 (18.3) | 244 (23.6) | 47 (28.1) |
| 3 | 426 (10.8) | 12 (14.1) | 169 (25.3) | 100 (13.0) | 574 (14.9) | 28 (26.9) | 327 (31.6) | 37 (22.2) |
| ≥ 4 | 250 (6.4) | 3 (3.5) | 187 (28.0) | 67 (8.7) | 372 (9.7) | 39 (37.5) | 324 (31.3) | 51 (30.5) |
| Cognitive impairment, % | 1348 (34.3) | / | 307 (47.0) | 397 (51.6) | 1055 (27.4) | / | 411 (39.7) | 70 (41.9) |
| Physical frailty, % | 165 (4.2) | / | 78 (11.9) | 78 (10.1) | 338 (8.8) | / | 302 (29.2) | 73 (43.7) |
| Gait speed, mean ± SD | 0.7 ± 0.3 | 0.4 ± 0.3 | 0.6 ± 0.3 | 0.5 ± 0.1 | 1.0 ± 0.3 | 0.6 ± 0.2 | 0.8 ± 0.2 | 0.8 ± 0.3 |
| Slow gait, % | 1979 (50.4) | 70 (82.4) | 396 (60.6) | / | 1252 (32.5) | 71 (68.3) | 449 (43.4) | / |
| Cognitive complaints, % | 1428 (36.4) | 54 (63.5) | 381 (58.4) | / | 409 (10.6) | 28 (26.9) | 289 (27.9) | / |
| The cognition score d, mean ± SD | 9.8 ± 4.3 | 3.9 ± 2.2 | 8.3 ± 4.3 | 8.0 ± 4.1 | 42.0 ± 14.7 | 23.2 ± 10.7 | 37.9 ± 14.3 | 35.5 ± 12.8 |
CHARLS China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, NHANES National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, CI-PF cognitive impairment and physical frailty, FI frailty index, MCR Motoric Cognitive Risk syndrome, SD standard deviation. CI-PF, FI, and MCR indicate vulnerable persons identified by the three aging metrics, as described in Methods
Notes: aNinety persons who self-identified as other races (including multi-racial) were excluded
bTen persons with missing data on education were excluded. In CHARLS, category 1 to 5 indicates “illiteracy”, “elementary”, “middle”, “senior” and “college and higher than college”, respectively; In NHANES, category 1 to 4 indicates “lower than high school”, “high school or general educational development”, “some college”, and “college”, respectively
cIn CHARLS, chronic diseases included hypertension, diabetes or high blood sugar, cancer or malignant tumor, chronic lung disease, heart problems, stroke, kidney disease, stomach or other digestive diseases, arthritis or rheumatism, and asthma. In NHANES, chronic diseases included congestive heart failure, stroke, cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, cataracts, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and myocardial infarction
dIn CHARLS, cognitive function was assessed by three tests, including the Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status-10 (TICS-10), word recall, and figure drawing. In NHANES, cognitive function was assessed by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST)