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Table 1 Participant characteristics by forgiveness of others at study baseline (The Nurses’ Health Study II 2008 Supplementary Survey, N = 53,237)a

From: Forgiveness of others and subsequent health and well-being in mid-life: a longitudinal study on female nurses

Participant characteristics

Forgiveness of others

Never/seldom (n = 5692)

Often (n = 28,071)

Always/almost always (n = 19,474)

Age, in years (range: 43–64)b

53.26 (4.62)

53.29 (4.65)

53.46 (4.66)

Non-Hispanic white, %

95.06

95.95

95.62

Marital status, %

76.10

81.07

83.57

Geographic region, %

 - Northeast

36.84

33.45

28.13

 - Midwest

28.91

32.76

34.85

 - South

15.76

18.05

21.14

 - West

18.48

15.74

15.88

Subjective SES in US (range: 1–10)

6.92 (1.41)

7.06 (1.29)

7.22 (1.31)

Subjective SES in community (range: 1–10)

6.59 (1.70)

6.86 (1.56)

7.12 (1.54)

Census-tract college education rate (range: 0–0.88)

0.33 (0.17)

0.32 (0.16)

0.31 (0.16)

Household income, %

 -< $50‚000

17.32

15.66

15.66

 - $50‚000-$74‚999

27.14

27.34

27.78

 - $75‚000-$99‚999

19.54

21.70

21.69

 - > =$100‚000

35.99

35.31

34.87

Census tract median income, %

 - < $50‚000

23.33

25.29

27.49

 - $50‚000-$74‚999

47.54

49.15

49.38

 - $75‚000-$99‚999

20.85

19.27

17.87

 - > =$100‚000

8.29

6.29

5.26

Night shift work over past 2 years, %

 - none

90.70

92.05

92.44

 - 1-9 months

4.04

3.45

3.18

 - 10-19 months

1.40

1.29

1.29

 - 20+ months

3.85

3.20

3.09

Currently employed, %

89.19

89.64

87.41

Childhood abuse victimization (range: 0–5)

2.06 (1.57)

1.77 (1.48)

1.65 (1.48)

Religious service attendance, %

 - never/almost never

42.28

22.70

16.42

 - < once/week

40.10

39.82

29.83

 - > =once/week

17.62

37.48

53.75

Number of close friends (range: 0–5)

1.55 (0.70)

1.71 (0.65)

1.80 (0.65)

Depressive symptoms (range: 0–30)

8.57 (5.96)

6.40 (4.92)

4.82 (4.43)

Depression diagnosis, %

20.85

15.39

13.17

Anxiety symptoms (range: 0–15)

3.05 (2.57)

2.55 (2.23)

2.10 (2.05)

Hopelessness (range: 0–3)

1.22 (0.94)

0.91 (0.89)

0.69 (0.91)

Positive affect (range: 0–3)

1.77 (0.82)

2.04 (0.74)

2.27 (0.74)

Preventive healthcare use, %

82.01

85.60

85.82

Alcohol intake, %

 - 0 g/day

31.14

31.31

38.20

 - 0.1–9.9 g/day

44.45

46.40

41.77

 - 10.0-29.9 g/day

18.45

18.42

16.46

 - 30+ grams/day

5.96

3.88

3.58

Cigarette smoking, %

 - never smoker

59.73

65.27

69.06

 - former smoker

32.03

28.58

25.71

 - current smoker 1–14/day

4.14

3.45

2.98

 - current smoker 15–24/day

2.97

1.99

1.75

 - current smoker > = 25/day

1.12

0.71

0.49

Physical activity (METS c), %

 - < 3

20.37

15.56

15.36

 - 3-8.9

18.85

19.23

18.78

 - 9-17.9

19.64

20.84

20.69

 - 18-26.9

12.31

13.98

14.64

 -> =27

28.83

30.39

30.53

Dietary quality (AHEI score d), %

 - bottom tertile, %

37.22

32.87

30.47

 - middle tetile, %

32.72

33.75

33.08

 - top tertile, %

30.06

33.38

36.45

BMI categories (kg/m2), %

 - < 20

5.33

5.30

5.63

 - 20-24.9

35.35

37.54

39.40

 - 25-29.9

28.87

29.71

29.63

 - 30-34.9

16.42

15.52

14.40

 - 35+

14.03

11.93

10.94

Diabetes, %

5.52

4.63

4.41

CHD, %

1.13

1.14

1.16

Stroke, %

1.45

1.32

1.31

Cancer, %

6.35

6.52

6.64

Postmenopausal status, %

59.90

60.68

60.61

Replacement Hormone use, %

14.31

14.15

14.85

  1. Values are means (SD) for continuous variables and percentages for categorical variables and are standardized to the age distribution of the study population. Values of polytomous variables may not sum to 100% due to rounding
  2. a This table is based on participants with complete data on forgiveness
  3. b Value is not age adjusted
  4. c Metabolic equivalents score (METS) was used to measure physical activity
  5. d Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) was used to measure dietary quality