A Cross-Sectional Study of Self-Rated Health among Older Adults: Association with Drinking Profiles and Other Determinants of Health

Table 2

Demographic, psychosocial, and health-related characteristics (control variables) of men and women, 55–74 years of age ( = 3,613).

	Men	Women
	n = 1,473	n = 2,140
Demographic variables
Marital status (%)	n = 1,469	n = 2,131
Married/partnered	72.5	57.2
Divorced/separated/widowed	19.9	35.4
Single/never married	7.6	7.4
Education (%)	n = 1,443	n = 2,094
Less than secondary	29.9	28.5
Secondary	23.2	28.0
Some post-secondary studies	20.4	24.9
University degree	26.4	18.6
Employment status (%)	n = 1,456	n = 2,101
Working for pay	45.9	31.8
Retired	47.9	55.3
Other	6.3	12.9
Psychosocial variables
Having at least one confidant (%)	n = 1,441	n = 2,128
	77	89.9
Member of voluntary org./ass. (%)	n = 1,467	n = 2,134
	39.4	43.8
Self-rated psychological health	n = 1,464	n = 2,129
(1 = excellent to 5 = poor)	M = 2.11 (SD = 0.96)	M = 2.23 (SD = 1.01)
Health-related variables
Self-rated physical health	n = 1,466	n = 2,135
(1 = excellent to 5 = poor)	M = 2.37 (SD = 1.19)	M = 2.46 (SD = 1.17)
Body mass index (BMI) (%)	n = 1,461	n = 2,044
Underweight	0.6	2.2
Normal weight	29.1	43.7
Overweight	51.2	35.1
Obese	19.1	19.0
Cigarette smoking status (%)	n = 1,473	n = 2,140
Never smoked	29.5	45.7
Smoked prior to last 12 months	48.1	34.1
Smoked within last 12 months	22.3	20.2
Tranquilizer/antidep. use (%)	n = 1,473	n = 2,140
	9.8	15.6
Sleeping pill use (%)	n = 1,473	n = 2,139
	9.5	12

Ordinal variables, five categories, used as continuous variables in the analyses.