Baseline characteristics of REGARDS participants according to baseline depressive symptoms (CES-D) and self-reported health
| Characteristics | Self-reported general health as ‘excellent or very good’ | Self-reported general health as ‘poor, fair or good’ | ||||
| CES-D<4 (N=12 965) | CES-D≥4 (N=725) | P | CES-D<4 (N=13 219) | CES-D≥4 (N=2523) | P | |
| Sociodemographics | ||||||
| Age, mean (SD) | 64.8 (9.4) | 64.5 (10.2) | 0.47 | 65.5 (9.3) | 62.8 (9.6) | <0.001 |
| Female, n (%) | 6600 (50.9) | 501 (69.1) | <0.001 | 7357 (55.7) | 1751 (69.4) | <0.001 |
| African-American, n (%) | 3726 (28.7) | 295 (40.7) | <0.001 | 6677 (50.5) | 1404 (55.6) | <0.001 |
| Less than high school education, n (%) | 845 (6.5) | 119 (16.4) | <0.001 | 2059 (15.6) | 658 (26.1) | <0.001 |
| Annual household income, n (%) | ||||||
| Less than US$20 000 | 1304 (10.1) | 190 (26.2) | <0.001 | 2832 (21.4) | 983 (39.0) | <0.001 |
| No health insurance, n (%) | 644 (5.0) | 70 (9.7) | <0.001 | 884 (6.7) | 324 (12.9) | <0.001 |
| Region, n (%) | 0.37 | <0.001 | ||||
| Stroke belt* | 4282 (33.0) | 256 (35.3) | 4668 (35.3) | 963 (38.2) | ||
| Stroke buckle† | 2619 (20.2) | 148 (20.4) | 2807 (21.2) | 601 (23.8) | ||
| Non-stroke belt or buckle | 6064 (46.8) | 321 (44.3) | 5744 (43.5) | 959 (38.0) | ||
| General health and medical conditions | ||||||
| Self-reported general health, n (%) | ||||||
| Poor, fair, good | – | – | – | – | ||
| Excellent, very good | – | – | – | – | ||
| CVD, n (%)‡ | 1948 (15.0) | 144 (19.9) | 0.004 | 3874 (29.3) | 840 (33.3) | <0.001 |
| Diabetes, n (%)§ | 1443 (11.6) | 93 (13.3) | 0.16 | 3840 (30.2) | 853 (35.1) | <0.001 |
| COPD, n (%) | 796 (6.2) | 55 (7.6) | 0.11 | 1507 (11.4) | 347 (13.8) | 0.007 |
| Physical component score on SF-12 scale, mean (SD) | 52.0 (6.5) | 51.3 (9.1) | 0.008 | 42.0 (10.7) | 37.7 (11.3) | <0.001 |
| Physiological risk factors | ||||||
| Body mass index, kg/m2, mean (SD) | 27.8 (5.1) | 28.4 (5.7) | 0.006 | 30.5 (6.6) | 31.2 (7.3) | <0.001 |
| Systolic blood pressure, mm Hg, mean (SD) | 125.3 (15.7) | 126.0 (17.2) | 0.27 | 129.6 (16.9) | 129.5 (18.3) | 0.91 |
| Total cholesterol, mg/dL, mean (SD) | 193.8 (38.2) | 195.5 (38.6) | 0.26 | 189.7 (41.2) | 194.4 (44.2) | <0.001 |
| High-density lipoprotein, mg/dL, mean (SD) | 53.1 (16.4) | 55.8 (16.6) | <0.001 | 50.4 (15.8) | 51.5 (16.1) | 0.002 |
| QT interval, corrected for heart rate, ms, mean (SD) | 405.6 (22.6) | 407.2 (23.5) | 0.06 | 408.7 (24.3) | 410.8 (24.2) | <0.001 |
| High-sensitivity C reactive protein, mg/L, median, IQR | 1.7 (0.8–3.8) | 1.9 (0.9–4.9) | 0.004 | 2.7 (1.2–6.1) | 3.4 (1.3–7.7) | <0.001 |
| Albumin to creatinine ratio, mg/g, median, IQR | 6.6 (4.3–12.3) | 6.9 (4.7–14.0) | 0.005 | 8.4 (5.0–20.7) | 8.7 (5.1–22.2) | 0.18 |
| Medications | ||||||
| Antihypertensive medication use, n (%) | 4916 (38.3) | 297 (41.7) | 0.06 | 8344 (63.9) | 1606 (64.5) | 0.57 |
| Statin use, n (%) | 3407 (26.4) | 176 (24.4) | 0.24 | 4822 (36.5) | 870 (34.6) | 0.06 |
| Aspirin use, n (%) | 5254 (40.5) | 273 (37.7) | 0.13 | 6100 (46.2) | 1140 (45.2) | 0.36 |
| Antidepressant use, n (%) | 1224 (9.5) | 144 (19.9) | <0.001 | 1933 (14.6) | 774 (30.8) | <0.001 |
| Behavioural risk factors | ||||||
| Self-reported smoking, pack-years, mean (SD) | 11.2 (20.5) | 12.1 (21.6) | 0.24 | 15.3 (24.7) | 16.5 (25.6) | 0.03 |
| Current smoking, n (%) | 1344 (10.4) | 114 (15.8) | <0.001 | 2110 (16.0) | 684 (27.2) | <0.001 |
| Alcohol use, n (%) | 0.01 | <0.001 | ||||
| Heavy | 634 (5.0) | 38 (5.4) | 409 (3.2) | 91 (3.7) | ||
| Moderate | 5034 (39.4) | 238 (33.8) | 3746 (29.0) | 600 (24.5) | ||
| None | 7103 (55.6) | 429 (60.9) | 8779 (67.9) | 1758 (71.8) | ||
| Physical inactivity, n (%) | 3107 (24.3) | 259 (36.0) | <0.001 | 5372 (41.3) | 1242 (50.0) | <0.001 |
| Medication non-adherence, n (%) | 2997 (26.2) | 211 (33.1) | <0.001 | 3809 (31.0) | 926 (39.1) | <0.001 |
| Impaired cognitive status (cognitive score ≤4) | 587 (5.6) | 61 (10.1) | <0.001 | 947 (8.9) | 285 (13.3) | <0.001 |
| Elevated perceived stress (PSS ≥5) | 2219 (17.1) | 404 (55.7) | <0.001 | 4048 (30.6) | 1900 (75.3) | <0.001 |
P values from χ2 and Student’ s t-tests.
n=total number assuming no missing data.
*Stroke belt defined as the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee and the non-coastal regions within the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
†Stroke buckle defined as the coastal regions within the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
‡CVD defined as baseline coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral artery disease or aortic aneurysm.
§Diabetes defined as fasting blood glucose ≥126 or random glucose >200 mL/dL or oral hypoglycaemic or insulin use.
CES-D, Centre for Epidemiology Studies Depression scale; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; CVD, cardiovascular disease; PSS, Perceived Stress Scale; REGARDS, Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke; SF-12, Short-Form Health Survey.