Table 1.

Demographics and clinical characteristics of patients in the two study groups

	RDSI intervention		Control arm		All participants
	N	Mean (SD) or frequency, %	N	Mean (SD) or frequency, %	N	Mean (SD) or frequency, %
Female	67	50.8%	65	49.6%	132	50.2%
Male	65	49.2%	66	50.4%	131	49.8%
Age	132	69.2 (8.70)	131	69.5 (10.20)
Smoking
Never smoked	18	13.6%	16	12.2%	34	12.9%
Ex-smoker	100	75.7%	96	73.3%	196	74.5%
Smoker	14	10.6%	19	14.5%	33	12.5%
COPD
Yes	41	31.1%	43	32.8%	84	31.9%
No	91	68.9%	88	67.2%	179	68.1%
WHO PS
0	20	15.15%	21	16.03%	41	15.59%
1	79	59.85%	71	54.20%	150	57.03%
2	33	25.00%	39	29.77%	72	27.38%
Diagnosis
Mesothelioma	17	12.88%	15	11.45%	32	12.17%
Primary LC	115	87.12%	115	87.79	230	87.45%
Secondary LC	0	0%	1	0.76%	1	0.38%
Time since diagnosis (years)*	131	1.8 (1.8)	130	1.8 (1.9)
Current Opiates
Yes	42	31.8%	41	31.3%	83	31.6%
No	90	68.2%	90	68.7%	180	68.4%
Current benzodiazepines
Yes	12	9.1%	10	7.6%	22	8.4%
No	120	90.9%	121	92.4%	241	91.6%
Completed treatment intent
Palliative	79	59.8%	80	61.1%	159	60.5%
Radical	53	40.2%	51	38.9%	104	39.5%

*Two patients did not have the date of diagnosis recorded, so data only available from 224 patients.

COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; LC, Lung Cancer; PS, Performance Status; RDSI, respiratory distress symptom intervention.