Table 2. Dreaded diseases: associations in a multinomial regression model with the reference category blindness*¹.

	Stroke	Cancer	Dementia	Deafness	Loss of a limb	AIDS/HIV	No fears
	Odds ratio [95% confidence interval]
Visual impairment*2	0.56*3 [0.50; 0.71]	0.66*3 [0.56; 0.78]	0.55*3 [0.46; 0.65]	0.67 [0.33; 1.04]	0.83 [0.58; 1.19]	0.74 [0.45; 1.24]	0.40*3 [0.32; 0.50]
Gender: male	1.14 [0.97; 1.33]	0.77*3 [0.66; 0.90]	0.83*3 [0.71; 0.97]	0.85 [0.46; 1.56]	1.45*3 [1.04; 2.01]	1.32 [0.83; 2.09]	1.40*3 [1.15; 1.70]
University entrance qualification*2	1.00 [0.82; 1.23]	1.04 [0.86; 1.25]	1.30*3 [1.08; 1.57]	1.45 [0.74; 2.84]	0.79 [0.53; 1.19]	1.13 [0.65; 1.97]	1.23 [0.65; 1.97]
Net household income <2500 euro*2	0.88 [0.73; 1.07]	0.74*3 [0.62; 0.89]	0.60*3 [0.50; 0.72]	0.75 [0.36; 1.56]	0.87 [0.59; 1.28]	1.44 [0.84; 2.46]	0.95 [0.75; 1.19]
Employed*2	1.47*3 [1.16; 1.88]	1.05 [0.84; 1.32]	1.01 [0.80; 1.27]	1.67 [0.64; 4.35]	1.57 [0.95; 2.61]	0.35*3 [0.19; 0.65]	0.85 [0.63; 1.29]
Multi-person household*2	1.48*3 [1.16; 1.88]	2.32*3 [1.92; 2.80]	1.59*3 [1.32; 1.91]	1.95 [0.85; 4.49]	1.51 [1.00; 2.70]	2.49*3 [1.38; 4.49]	1.30*3 [1.04; 1.63]
Additional year of life (age)	1.03*3 [1.02; 1.03]	0.98*3 [0.98; 0.99]	1.02*3 [1.01; 1.03]	1.00 [0.96; 1.05]	0.98 [0.96; 1.00]	0.94*3 [0.91; 0.96]	1.01*3 [1.00; 1.02]

n = 7957 (at least one entry was missing for 2912 of these)

Odds ratio <1 indicates that if this characteristic is present (for instance, visual impairment), the respective disease (for instance, stroke) is feared less than blindness.

*¹ Reference category blindness (Nagelkerke r2 = 0.099);

*² Dichotomized independent variables;

*³ p <0.05