. 2008 Jul;98(7):1209–1214. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.130955

TABLE 1—

Participant Characteristics, by Age Group: Health and Retirement Study, 1998

	Age 50– 59 Years (n = 5382), %	Age 60– 69 Years (n = 6591), %	Age 70– 79 Years (n = 4903), %	Age 80– 89 Years (n = 2219), %	Age 80– 89 Years (n = 335), %	All Participants (n = 19 430), %
Mortality	5	11	24	47	76	18
Men	42	46	45	38	30	44
Women	58	54	55	62	70	56
Chronic conditions
Hypertension	38	48	53	55	53	47
Diabetes mellitus
None	89	85	83	85	90	86
Oral medications only	7	10	11	10	8	10
Insulin	3	3	4	3	2	3
Kidney disease	2	2	2	2	1	2
Heart disease
None	87	81	75	69	68	79
Angina	10	16	19	22	20	16
Heart attack past 2 y	1	2	3	4	3	2
Heart failure	1	2	4	5	9	3
Cancer
None	94	90	85	82	86	89
Localized	6	10	14	17	13	11
Spread	0.4	0.4	0.8	0.8	0.6	1
Lung disease
None	94	90	89	88	94	91
No medications	4	5	5	5	3	5
Medications	2	4	4	4	3	3
Oxygen	0.4	1	2	2	0.6	1
Stroke
None	97	95	91	87	84	93
No current deficits	1	3	5	7	6	3
Current deficits	2	3	5	6	9	3
Any chronic conditions	70	83	88	92	90	82
Functional limitations
Toileting
No difficulty	97	96	94	89	81	95
Difficulty	3	3	5	7	10	4
Dependent	0.6	0.8	2	4	8	1
Eating
No difficulty	98	98	97	92	88	97
Difficulty	0.8	1	1	3	6	1
Dependent	0.7	1	2	5	6	2
Bathing
No difficulty	97	95	92	82	68	93
Difficulty	2	3	4	7	6	3
Dependent	1	2	4	11	26	4
Using the telephone
No difficulty	98	97	94	87	78	95
Difficulty	2	2	4	9	14	4
Dependent	0.1	0.5	1	3	9	1
Managing finances
No difficulty	97	97	94	85	72	95
Difficulty	2	2	4	8	17	4
Dependent	0.4	0.8	2	7	11	2
Any difficulty in an ADL or IADL	15	19	26	46	68	21
Walking
Able to jog 1 mile	24	15	8	3	1	14
Able to walk several blocks	57	61	60	45	30	57
Able to walk 1 block	11	14	17	24	21	15
Difficulty walking 1 block	7	9	13	21	29	11
Can’t walk 1 block	0.8	2	2	7	19	2

Note. ADL = activities of daily living; IADL = instrumental activities of daily living. ADL include bathing, dressing, eating, transferring, and toileting. IADL include shopping, preparing meals, using the telephone, managing medications, and managing finances.