Demographic and Socioeconomic
Characteristics
We collected data from 5777 older adults with an average age of 71.5 years (SD=8.1;
range=60–97 years). Of this sample, 60.2% (3477) were women and 39.8% (2300) were
men. Approximately 56.8% (3281) were married or cohabitating, 11.8% (677) were separated
or divorced, 25.1% (1450) were widowed, and 5.2% (303) had never married. By self-report, 87.5% (4876) of respondents were White, 6.7% (386) were African American, 2.3% (132) were American Indian or Alaskan Native, 0.8% (49) were Asian, and 0.2% (13) were Pacific Islanders; the remainder chose not to answer this question. Of the total sample, 4.3% (245) of respondents indicated they were of Hispanic or Latino origin.