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Table 3 Selected sociodemographic and physical characteristics of participants who completed the NICOLA health assessment, by gender

From: Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NICOLA): health assessment protocol, participant profile and patterns of participation

 

All

(nmax=3655)

Men

(nmax=1761)

Women

(nmax=1894)

P value1

Health Assessment location

    

Clinic

Home

3462 (94.7)

193 (5.3)

1678 (95.3)

83 (4.7)

1784 (94.2)

110 (5.8)

0.14

Age group (yrs)

    

50–64

65–74

≥ 75

1977 (54.1)

1187 (32.5)

491 (13.4)

884 (50.2)

613 (34.8)

264 (15.0)

1093 (57.7)

574 (30.3)

227 (12.0)

< 0.001

Marital status

    

Married / cohabiting

Never married

Separated / divorced / widowed

2643 (72.3)

244 (6.7)

768 (21.0)

1372 (77.9)

103 (5.8)

286 (16.2)

1271 (67.2)

141 (7.4)

482 (25.4)

< 0.001

Employment

    

Retired

Employed

Self-employed (incl farming)

Unemployed

Permanently sick / disabled

Looking after home / family / other2

1857 (50.9)

1059 (29.0)

369 (10.1)

86 (2.4)

141 (3.9)

137 (3.7)

908 (51.7)

439 (25.0)

254 (14.5)

59 (3.4)

73 (4.1)

23 (1.3)

949 (50.1)

620 (32.8)

115 (6.1)

27 (1.4)

68 (3.6)

114 (6.0)

< 0.001

Education

    

Primary / none

Secondary

Higher

577 (15.8)

1602 (43.8)

1476 (40.4)

353 (20.0)

738 (41.9)

670 (38.0)

224 (11.8)

864 (45.6)

806 (42.6)

< 0.001

Region

    

Urban

Intermediate

Rural

635 (17.4)

2048 (56.2)

964 (26.4)

283 (16.1)

1013 (57.7)

461 (26.2)

352 (18.6)

1035 (54.8)

503 (26.6)

0.09

Multiple Deprivation Measure 3

    

1 (least deprived)

2

3

4

5 (most deprived)

991 (27.1)

763 (20.9)

733 (20.1)

658 (18.0)

510 (14.0)

498 (28.3)

360 (20.4)

353 (20.0)

296 (16.8)

254 (14.4)

493 (26.0)

403 (21.3)

380 (20.1)

362 (19.1)

256 (13.5)

0.26

Anthropometric and body composition

    

Height (cm)

Weight (kg)

Body mass index (kg/m2)

Body fat (%)

Waist circumference (cm)

Hip circumference (cm)

Waist:hip ratio

165.6 (9.3)

79.7 (16.6)

29.0 (5.2)

44.2 (6.5)

95.8 (14.1)

104.7 (9.8)

0.91 (0.1)

172.6 (6.7)

87.2 (14.8)

29.2 (4.5)

44.7 (5.7)

101.9 (11.9)

104.5 (7.6)

0.97 (0.1)

159.1 (6.1)

72.7 (15.2)

28.7 (5.8)

43.8 (7.2)

90.2 (13.7)

105.0 (11.4)

0.86 (0.1)

< 0.001

< 0.001

0.002

< 0.001

< 0.001

0.06

< 0.001

Blood pressure

    

SBP (mmHg)

DBP (mmHg)

SBP, postural (mmHg)

DBP, postural (mmHg)

132.7 (18.8)

81.3 (10.9)

131.6 (20.4)

83.8 (11.2)

136.6 (17.8)

82.4 (10.9)

136.3 (20.1)

85.1 (11.1)

129.1 (19.1)

80.2 (10.9)

127.2 (19.7)

82.5 (11.1)

< 0.001

< 0.001

< 0.001

< 0.001

Lipid and diabetes profile

    

Total cholesterol (mmol/l)

5.1 (1.2)

4.8 (1.1)

5.5 (1.1)

< 0.001

HDL cholesterol (mmol/l)

Triglycerides (mmol/l)

HbA1c (%)

1.5 (0.4)

1.5 (1.1, 2.1)

5.8 (0.9)

1.3 (0.3)

1.6 (1.1, 2.2)

5.8 (1.0)

1.6 (0.4)

1.4 (1.0, 2.0)

5.8 (0.8)

< 0.001

< 0.001

0.07

Respiratory function:

    

Forced vital capacity (FVC) (l)

Forced expiratory flow (FEV1) (l)

3.5 (0.9)

2.6 (0.7)

4.1 (0.9)

3.0 (0.7)

3.0 (0.6)

2.2 (0.5)

< 0.001

< 0.001

Cognition:

    

MMSE (score)

MOCA (score)

Animal recall (number)

Colour trails 2 (time in secs)

28.4 (1.8)

25.3 (3.3)

19.0 (5.6)

118.5 (41.5)

28.2 (1.8)

25.0 (3.2)

19.2 (5.7)

124.4 (45.2)

28.6 (1.8)

25.6 (3.3)

18.9 (5.5)

113.4 (37.4)

< 0.001

< 0.001

0.11

< 0.001

Mobility and strength:

    

Step test

Timed Up and Go (seconds)

Grip strength (kg)

16.4 (4.3)

10.1 (2.8)

31.2 (11.8)

16.7 (4.3)

10.0 (2.6)

39.8 (9.8)

16.2 (4.2)

10.1 (3.0)

23.0 (6.4)

0.001

0.27

< 0.001

Hearing

    

Use of hearing aid (self-reported)

    

All of the time

Some of the time

176 (4.8)

171 (4.7)

91 (5.2)

104 (5.9)

85 (4.5)

67 (3.5)

0.004

Quality of hearing (self-reported)

    

Excellent / very good / good

Fair / poor

2765 (76.0)

875 (24.0)

1222 (69.7)

530 (30.3)

1543 (81.7)

345 (18.3)

< 0.001

Mental Health

    

CES-D (score)

WEMWBS (score)

5 (2, 11)

55 (49, 61)

4 (2, 10)

55 (49, 61)

6 (2, 12)

55 (48, 61)

< 0.001

0.27

Ophthalmic

    

Wear glasses or contact lenses

Visited optometrist in last 12 mo

Cataract (self-reported)

Glaucoma (self-reported)

AMD (self-reported)

Visual acuity, distance, pin hole, better eye (number of letters)

Refractive error, most severe eye (spherical equivalent from auto refractor)

3488 (95.8)

2242 (61.5)

775 (21.3)

92 (2.5)

90 (2.5)

82 (6)

0.83 (2.9)

1672 (95.2)

1026 (58.4)

344 (19.6)

45 (2.6)

51 (2.9)

83 (6)

0.93 (2.69)

1816 (96.4)

1216 (64.5)

431 (22.9)

47 (2.5)

39 (2.1)

82 (6)

0.74 (3.09)

0.11

< 0.001

0.01

0.89

0.11

< 0.001

0.06

Age-related macular degeneration4

    

No AMD

Normal ageing

Early AMD

Intermediate AMD

Advanced AMD

1637 (51.4)

761 (23.9)

525 (16.5)

235 (7.4)

26 (0.8)

789 (51.3)

374 (24.3)

232 (15.0)

129 (8.4)

15 (1.0)

848 (51.6)

387 (23.5)

293 (17.8)

106 (6.4)

11 (0.7)

0.07

Glaucoma5

    

Absent (both eyes)

3202 (96.9)

1549 (96.8)

1653 (97.0)

0.75

Present (either eye)

103 (3.1)

52 (3.2)

51 (3.0)

 
  1. Values are unweighted mean (SD) or median (IQR) for continuous variables or n (%) for categorical variables
  2. 1 p value represents difference between men and women
  3. 2 Other includes those in education/training (categories were combined due to low cell counts)
  4. 3 Based on the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure 2010 [81]
  5. 4 Measurement based on retinal image and Beckman Clinical Classification
  6. 5 The International Society of Geographical and Epidemiological Ophthalmology (ISGEO) Classification
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