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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

From: Aging metrics incorporating cognitive and physical function capture mortality risk: results from two prospective cohort studies

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

  1. 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
  2. Notes: aNinety persons who self-identified as other races (including multi-racial) were excluded
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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)