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Table 1 Characteristics of participants of the Puerto Rico Assessment for Diet, Lifestyle, and Diseases, by site

From: Challenges and opportunities in establishing a collaborative multisite observational study of chronic diseases and lifestyle factors among adults in Puerto Rico

Characteristic

Community clinic (n = 206)

Research clinic (n = 101)

City hospital clinic (n = 73)

  Recruitment indicators

  Had valid food frequency data, %

73.8

35.6*

74.0

  Had anthropometric measures, %

77.2

83.2

87.7

  Had medical record data, %

53.9

65.3

64.4

  Had legumes questionnaire, %

85.9

61.4*

72.6

  Mean interview time, hour:minutes

1:25

1:37

1:52

  Median interview time, hour:minutes

1:12

1:32

1:46

  Sociodemographics

  Age, years

50.0 (11.7)

51.5 (10.3)*

55.5 (10.0)

  Female, %

69.9

49.5*

75.3

  Rural area of residence, %

3.9

32.7*

26.0

 Ethnicity, %

  Puerto Rican

69.9

94.1*

97.3

  Dominican

26.7

0

0

  American/Other

3.4

5.9

2.7

 Marital status, %

  Married/living with partner

44.3

36.1

47.8

  Divorced/separated/widowed

20.7

20.6

21.7

  Single

35.0

43.3

30.4

 Education, %

  No schooling or <11th grade

21.1

16.9*

0

  12th grade

26.1

29.5

8.5

  Some college or higher

48.7

44.9

91.6

 Household income, %

  $0–$10,000

70.9

68.0*

9.6

  $10,001–$20,000

20.9

10.3

38.5

   > $20,000

8.2

21.8

51.9

 Employment, %

  Currently employed

35.4

26.7*

53.4

  Retired/stay-at-home

51.5

48.5

38.4

  Unemployed

13.1

43.1

10.3

 Health insurance, %

  Public

63.4

49.5*

20.7

  Private

27.3

46.3

72.4

  No health insurance

9.3

4.2

6.9

  Lives alone, %

20.9

37.6*

17.8

  Receives food assistancea, %

67.0

49.0*

8.5

  Lifestyle and psychosocial factors

  Abdominal obesityb, %

58.4

54.2*

77.3

  High waist-to-hip ratiob, %

70.3

84.8*

83.3

  Overweight/Obesityb, %

39.2

40.9

52.9

  Sedentary physical activityc, %

40.2

42.9

54.1

  Self-rated poor/fair dietary habits, %

28.3

38.6

26.0

  Current smoker, %

18.2

28.1*

5.7

  Current alcohol drinker, %

28.6

19.6*

31.4

  Sleep, hours/day

6.7 (1.5)

7.2 (1.5)*

6.8 (1.5)

  Perceived stress scored

22.5 (7.4)

20.4 (7.8)

21.0 (8.1)

  Depressive symptoms scored

19.7 (12.6)

13.9 (10.9)*

16.3 (13.3)

  Social support scored(Range 0–36)

23.4 (7.2)

26.4 (6.5)*

26.3 (7.0)

  Diabetes emotional support scored(Range 0–40)1

13.7 (7.6)

15.2 (5.9)

14.1 (8.8)

  Self-reported medical diagnoses e

  Hypertension, %

37.8

36.5

47.1

  Anxiety, %

28.0

31.9

31.5

  Obesity, %

25.9

20.2*

43.9

  Arthritis, %

24.4

23.7

30.1

  Hypercholesterolemia, %

24.0

14.9*

35.2

  Depression, %

20.9

21.5

26.0

  Respiratory problems, %

23.3

18.5

16.9

  Diabetes, %

17.2

22.2

28.8

  Thyroid diseases, %

15.2

15.5

27.4

  Gastrointestinal diseases, %

15.3

20.4

18.3

  Pre-diabetes, %

14.6

15.3

16.7

  Hypertriglyceridemia, %

12.1

14.1

22.9

  Heart disease/stroke, %

10.2

13.2*

16.4

  1. Shown as mean (standard deviation) or percent
  2. aDetermined as a member of the household currently receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
  3. bAbdominal obesity defined as waist circumference >102 cm in men or >88 cm in women. High waist-to-hip ratio defined as ≥0.90 in men or ≥0.85 in women. Overweight/obesity defined as self-reported BMI ≥25.0 kg/m2
  4. cSedentary physical activity defined as a physical activity score < 30. Physical activity was captured using a modified Paffenbarger questionnaire; the score was calculated as the sum of hours spent on typical 24-h activities (heavy, moderate, light, or sedentary activity, and sleeping) multiplied by weighing factors that parallel the rate of oxygen consumption associated with each activity
  5. dPerceived stress scale ranges from 0 to 56 with higher scores indicative of higher stress. Depressive symptomatology was assessed with the Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression (CESD) Scale which ranges from 0 to 60 with higher scores corresponding to stronger depressive symptomology. Social support was measured with the 12-item Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12, which ranges from 0 to 36; greater scores relate to higher social support. The diabetes emotional support scale was only asked to participants with diabetes (n = 78) using the Diabetes Social Support Questionnaire-Family Version; the scale ranges from 0 to 25 and a higher score indicates higher diabetes support
  6. eSelf-report that the condition had ever been diagnosed by a doctor or health care provider
  7. *p < 0.05 between clinics
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BMC Public Health

ISSN: 1471-2458

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