TABLE 1.

Demographic and Clinical Characteristics

	Escalation Group (n = 5,044)	Unchanged Group (n = 21,967)	P Value
Baseline demographic characteristics
Age, years, mean (SD)	37.5 (16.4)	39.0 (16.2)	< 0.001
Female, n (%)	3,058 (60.6)	12,692 (57.8)	0.001
Geographic region, n (%)
Northeast	689 (13.7)	2,684 (12.2)	0.001
Midwest	1,303 (25.8)	6,101 (27.8)	< 0.001
South	2,045 (40.5)	8,729 (39.7)	0.017
West	1,007 (20.0)	4,446 (20.2)	0.166
Baseline clinical characteristics
Charlson comorbidity score, mean (SD)	0.87 (0.8)	0.90 (0.8)	0.008
Charlson comorbidity score category, n (%)
0	1,339 (26.6)	5,342 (24.3)	< 0.001
1-2	3,479 (69.0)	15,615 (71.1)	< 0.001
3-4	198 (3.9)	869 (4.0)	0.898
5+	28 (0.6)	141 (0.6)	0.737
Top 5 AHRQ comorbidities, n (%)
Respiratory infections	2,838 (56.3)	10,987 (50.0)	< 0.001
Other upper respiratory disease	2,125 (42.1)	8,600 (39.2)	< 0.001
Other lower respiratory disease	2,083 (41.3)	7,874 (35.8)	< 0.001
Immunizations and screening for infectious disease	1,914 (38.0)	7,696 (35.0)	0.005
Other connective tissue disease	1,377 (27.3)	5,551 (25.3)	0.019
Lower respiratory tract infection, n (%)	1,208 (24.0)	4,645 (21.2)	< 0.001

AHRQ = Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; SD = standard deviation.