Gender % male
| 45.1 | 39 | 25.5 | 32.6 | 25.8 | 39.2 |
Age in years: median,
| 79.2 | 80.1 | 82.2 | 79.5 | 82.4 | 80.1 |
interquartile range
| 76.7–83.0 | 76.9–83.3 | 78.5–86.0 | 76.7–84.6 | 78.7–86.2 | 77.0–83.9 |
Marital status§
| % | % | % | % | % | % |
Married | 55.1 (51.3) | 42.1 (41.5) | 2.4 (3.8) | 4.6 (4.6) | 22.7 (30.6) | 42.6 |
Formerly married | 40.7 (43.9) | 52.9 (53.4) | 83.3 (80.0) | 87.8 (88.5) | 69.5 (61.8) | 51.7 |
Single | 4.2 (4.7) | 5.0 (5.1) | 14.4 (16.2) | 7.6 (6.9) | 7.8 (7.6) | 5.7 |
Health problems§
| | | | | | |
% Difficulty hearing | 5.1 (5.3) | 8.3 (8.7) | 9.1 (7.2) | 10.7 (9.7) | 10.6 (9.2) | 7.0 |
% Difficulty seeing | 6.2 (7.1) | 8.5 (9.0) | 10.2 (8.4) | 6.2 (5.8) | 16.5 (13.5) | 8.5 |
% Urinary incontinence | 4.3 (4.5) | 6.3 (6.3) | 7.6 (5.7) | 6.3 (5.5) | 11.1 (9.5) | 6.0 |
% Lower legs swollen | 6.2 (6.5) | 9.6 (9.7) | 9.3 (7.7) | 10.7 (12.7) | 14.0 (11.7) | 8.4 |
% Severe shortness breath | 9.4 (9.7) | 13.8 (14.0) | 13.5 (11.3) | 13.6 (14.1) | 18.4 (17.1) | 12.0 |
% 3+ medicines | 38.8 (39.2) | 42.3 (42.5) | 42.4 (38.8) | 47.6 (46.6) | 54.1 (53.2) | 42.2 |
% Everyday memory problems | 6.9 (7.1) | 8.7 (8.8) | 13.2 (10.9) | 7.6 (7.7) | 11.8 (10.0) | 8.5 |
Health behaviours§
| | | | | | |
% Smoke | 7.2 (6.8) | 11.9 (11.8) | 8.6 (10.6) | 14.5 (16.1) | 10.1 (12.0) | 8.9 |
% Do not drink | 24.4 (25.8) | 38.4 (38.2) | 33.3 (29.5) | 47.7 (45.3) | 36.9 (34.8) | 30.3 |
% Not very/not at all active | 17.2 (18.1) | 23.6 (24.0) | 29.0 (23.1) | 30.5 (33.0) | 34.7 (30.7) | 22.3 |
Social contact§
| | | | | | |
% Rare contact | 4.0 (4.0) | 4.1 (4.0) | 8.0 (7.8) | 10.1 (10.1) | 4.1 (4.2) | 4.4 |
Help§
| | | | | | |
% No informal help | 73.5 (72.3) | 66.4 (66.1) | 44.1 (48.6) | 44.1 (48.6) | 64.9 (67.4) | 68.0 |
% No use of treatment services | 46.5 (45.3) | 44.3 (44.2) | 40.1 (42.7) | 46.3 (46.8) | 32.6 (35.4) | 43.5 |
% No use of other services | 68.5 (65.1) | 72.5 (71.4) | 71.5 (74.5) | 74.1 (75.4) | 51.4 (53.1) | 67.2 |
Number (% of total)
| 3475 (55.2) | 1272 (20.2) | 467 (7.4) | 132 (2.1) | 952 (15.1) | 6298 (100.0) |