Table 1

Frequency distributions (weighted percentages unless indicated otherwise) of socioeconomic, demographic, and health characteristics of respondents, and their health-care utilization, by country: Joint Canada/US Survey of Health, 2002–03*

		United States		Canada
Variable	Category	Any DC care (n = 595)	Total pop. (N = 5183)	Any DC care (n = 448)	Total pop. (N = 3505)
Socioeconomic and demographic factors:
Age (Years)	18–44	50.3	52.3	56.4	52.3
	45–64	37.2	31.7	32.8	32.1
	≥ 65	12.5	16.0	10.8	15.6
	Mean (SE)	45.2 (0.7)	45.4 (0.3)	43.4 (0.8)	45.1 (0.3)
	Median	44	43	42	43
Sex	Male	43.4	48.0	47.0	49.1
	Female	56.6	52.0	53.0	50.9
Race/ethnicity	White only	80.2	69.3	86.8	81.0
	Other/multiple	16.7	26.4	13.0	17.7
Education	No high school degree or GED	8.4	11.3	15.1	19.4
	High school degree or GED	35.8	35.8	32.4	30.6
	Some college	14.1	35.3	20.2	21.2
	4-year college degree or certificate	39.0	35.3	31.2	27.3
Marital status	Married or living with partner	65.9	61.3	69.6	64.7
	Widowed	4.6	6.1	3.9	5.7
	Separated or divorced	11.4	10.4	7.8	7.7
	Single	15.3	18.5	18.4	20.9
Household income (adjusted for household size)	Lowest quintile	11.3	15.3	11.5	17.0
	Lower middle	18.0	16.4	18.9	17.5
	Middle	15.4	14.5	16.6	16.1
	Upper middle	18.3	15.2	20.2	17.6
	Highest	18.2	14.8	21.6	16.0
Main income source	Employment	77.3	72.4	79.7	75.0
Health status and chronic conditions:
Chronic conditions (lifetime history)	Asthma	13.1	11.4	12.3	10.4
	Arthritis	23.2	18.6	20.3	16.8
	Hypertension	19.9	22.7	13.0	18.3
	Emphysema or COPD	1.8	2.1	1.2	1.3
	Diabetes	5.1	6.7	3.9	4.7
	Heart disease	4.7	6.0	4.5	5.1
	Coronary heart disease	2.1	2.4	1.4	1.8
	Angina	1.5	2.9	2.1	3.7
	1 or more conditions	38.4	36.8	34.2	33.4
Depression	Episode in past 12 months	11.2	8.5	9.0	8.0
Mental health visit	Visit in past 12 months	14.8	10.5	14.5	10.1
Emotional problems	Happy and interested in life	77.7	77.9	84.8	80.8
Health Utility Index	Mean (SE)	0.87 (0.01)	0.87 (<0.01)	0.87 (0.01)	0.88 (<0.01)
Self-rated health	Excellent	26.1	26.4	23.5	24.0
	Very good	36.9	32.5	39.1	36.4
	Good	24.9	26.5	25.3	28.0
	Fair or poor	12.1	14.6	12.2	11.5
Activity restrictions and lifestyle factors:
Pain/activity limits	No pain or discomfort	75.2	80.6	75.3	82.0
Activity restrictions	Often	9.9	10.1	10.0	9.6
	Sometimes	24.4	18.6	25.4	19.8
	Never	64.6	69.9	63.9	69.6
Back or neck problems	Cause of activity limitations	16.3	9.1	20.1	10.4
Smoking status	Current	19.7	22.3	23.6	24.8
	Past	28.4	23.5	31.5	28.7
	Never	51.5	53.7	44.7	46.2
Body weight	Under/normal weight (BMI <25)	40.4	43.5	47.6	48.8
	Overweight (BMI 25 – <30)	32.9	32.5	35.2	32.7
	Obese (BMI > = 30)	22.9	19.8	14.8	14.8
Physical activity (past 3 months)	Active	22.0	21.1	27.0	26.4
	Moderate	20.7	20.2	25.2	25.5
	Inactive	55.2	55.9	46.9	47.0
Activity frequency (past 3 months)	Regular	56.2	55.0	67.1	65.8
	Occasional	18.3	16.9	18.4	16.4
	Infrequent	23.5	25.2	13.7	16.7
Health-care use and perceptions:
Hospitalization	1 or more in past 12 months	10.3	10.2	7.7	9.1
No. of prescriptions	1 or more in past month	66.6	57.5	57.8	55.2
No. of different prescription medications	<3 in past 2 days	47.3	37.5	44.4	39.9
	3–5 in past 2 days	15.6	14.2	9.8	11.7
	6+ in past 2 days	3.7	5.6	3.0	3.3
Health insurance	Insured in past 12 months	89.2	86.9	NA	NA7
Unmet health-care needs	Any in past 12 months	12.5	13.1	11.6	10.7
Regular doctor	Yes in past 12 months	84.3	79.5	89.2	84.7
Health care quality (past 12 months)	Excellent	41.6	38.2	33.6	36.5
	Good	44.4	42.5	48.1	43.3
	Fair or poor	11.1	10.5	16.7	13.9
Health care satisfaction (past 12 months)	Very satisfied	50.8	48.5	41.2	40.8
	Somewhat satisfied	35.9	33.3	40.7	40.4
	Less than satisfied	10.3	9.1	16.1	12.1
Quality of MD care† (past 12 months)	Excellent	59.6	56.6	52.3	58.3
	Good	32.6	32.6	36.0	33.1
	Fair or poor	5.2	6.8	11.1	6.9
Satisfaction of MD care† (past 12 months)	Very satisfied	69.2	65.2	61.0	64.8
	Somewhat satisfied	23.2	25.7	29.2	27.0
	Less than satisfied	4.2	4.8	8.9	6.1
Health-care use‡ (past 12 months)	Any chiropractic care	100	11.4	100	12.9
	GP care only	0	67.2	0	68.8
	Both GP and DC care	85.3	9.7	87.7	11.3
	Chiropractic care only	14.7	1.7	13.3	1.6
	No GP or DC care	0	20.7	0	17.5
Chiropractic visits (past 12 months)	0	0	88.5	0	86.8
	1	20.9	2.4	14.7	1.9
	2–5	34.9	4.0	34.1	4.4
	6–10	15.8	1.8	20.4	2.6
	11–20	18.0	2.1	19.5	2.5
	21–30	4.6	0.5	6.8	0.9
	31+	5.8	0.7	4.5	0.6
	Mean, median	8.22, 4	0.94, 0	8.80, 5	1.14, 0
General practitioner or family doctor visits (past 12 months)	0	14.7	22.5	12.3	19.1
	1	22.4	22.8	19.8	21.8
	2–5	50.0	41.8	49.7	42.8
	6–10	8.2	7.4	9.0	7.9
	11–20	2.7	3.9	8.0	6.6
	21–30	1.1	0.7	1.0	0.7
	31+	0.9	0.5	0.2	0.5
	Mean, median	3.18, 2	2.84, 2	3.69, 2	3.31, 2
All health-care visits (past 12 months)	0	0	6.9	0	5.2
	1	0.7	7.3	0.9	7.9
	2–5	14.6	38.6	11.4	39.0
	6–10	24.1	22.1	22.4	22.3
	11–20	28.7	15.3	32.3	15.5
	21–30	14.7	4.9	17.6	5.7
	31+	17.2	4.9	15.5	4.5
	Mean, median	17.11, 14	8.69, 5	17.97, 15	8.66, 5

* Weighted percentages may not sum to 100 because of missing data or exclusion of certain categories; percentages weighted to account for age, sex, region (Canada only), and race/ethnicity (U.S. only); 595 and 5183 represent 23,513,576 and 206,417,185 adults, respectively, in the U.S.; 448 and 3505 represent 3,105,017 and 24,046,837 adults, respectively, in Canada.

^† Most recent visit among respondents reporting at least one visit to a physician in the past 12 months.

^‡ Weighted percentages sum to greater than 100 because categories are not mutually exclusive.

DC = Doctor of Chiropractic;
SE = standard error;
COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease;
BMI = body mass index;
NA = not applicable;
GP = general practitioner or family doctor;
MD = medical doctor.