Table 1

Baseline sample characteristics (mean or percentage) among older adults by AME status

	Total sample (n=12 541)	No AME identified (n=10 133)	At least one AME (n=2408)	p Value
Outcomes of interest
AME	0.19
Died	0.17	0.15	0.28	***
Beneficiary attributes
Age	75.51	75.32	76.30	***
Male	0.41	0.40	0.45	***
Married	0.54	0.54	0.54
Hispanic	0.05	0.06	0.05
African-American	0.08	0.07	0.08
Other ethnicity/race	0.03	0.03	0.02
White	0.84	0.84	0.84
Lives alone	0.34	0.34	0.34
Income <$25 000	0.58	0.57	0.60	*
Less than high school degree	0.34	0.33	0.36	**
Beneficiary health attributes
Number of chronic conditions (0–13)	3.79	3.52	4.94	***
ADL limitations (0–6)	0.75	0.69	1.01	***
IADL limitations (0–6)	0.93	0.87	1.20	***
Self-reported fair to poor health	0.25	0.22	0.34	***
Underweight	0.04	0.04	0.03
Normal weight	0.41	0.42	0.39	*
Overweight	0.37	0.37	0.38
Obese	0.18	0.18	0.20	**
Use of proxy due to dementia	0.02	0.03	0.02
Rural–urban location
Urban location	0.74	0.74	0.72	**
Adjacent to urban location	0.18	0.18	0.20
Rural location	0.08	0.08	0.09	*
Northeast	0.18	0.18	0.18
Midwest	0.27	0.27	0.28
South	0.38	0.38	0.39
West	0.16	0.16	0.14	*

Characteristics were measured at baseline from Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, 1998–2004. Differences tested using Student t tests. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.
ADL, activities of daily living; AME, adverse medical event; IADL, instrumental activities of daily living.