Relating Sensory, Cognitive, and Neural Factors to Older Persons’ Perceptions about Happiness: An Exploratory Study

Table 2

Participant demographics and clinical characteristics.

Characteristics	All participants (n = 114)	Subset with fMRI (n = 57)
Age, mean (SD), y	74.6 (7.8)	73.4 (8.1)
Women, %	54.4	64.9
College degree or higher, %	57.9	61.4
Chronic medical conditions, mean (SD)	2.9 (2.1)	2.2 (1.5)^d
Geriatric depression scale (GDS), mean (SD)^a	1.4 (1.9)	1.2 (1.6)
Vision-impaired, %^b	21.9	24.6
Hearing impaired, %^c	55.3	49.1

^aGeriatric depression scale (GDS) short-form: 15-item screening tool used to identify depression in older adults. ^bDefined as visual acuity 20/40 or less in the better eye. ^cDefined as pure-tone average >25 dB HL in the better ear averaged over frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz. ^dfMRI subset significantly differs from participants without fMRI (at level).