Table 1.
Characteristics of patients included in analysis, by anticipated benefit category
| Characteristic | Whole sample | Anticipated benefit | No anticipated benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1032 | 352 | 680 |
|
| |||
| Demographic | |||
| Median age, years (IQR) | 70 (62–77) | 71 (63–77) | 69 (62–77) |
| Men, n (%) | 477 (46.2) | 183 (52.0) | 294 (43.2) |
| Median number of chronic conditions, n (IQR) | 7 (5–9) | 7 (5–9) | 6 (5–8) |
| Median number of different chronically prescribed medications, n (IQR)a | 5 (3–7) | 6 (4–8) | 4 (2–7) |
|
| |||
| Median number of contacts with general practice over 2 years, n (IQR) | |||
| Home visits | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–0) |
| Face-to-face consultations | 12 (7–18) | 14 (9–21) | 11 (6–17) |
| Telephone calls | 6 (3–10) | 6 (4–12) | 5 (3–9) |
| Repeat prescriptionsb | 0 (0–3) | 2 (0–11) | 0 (0–1) |
| Short consultations | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–1) |
| Other contacts | 15 (10–22) | 16 (10–24) | 14 (9–21) |
| Emails | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–0) |
|
| |||
| Clusters of chronic diagnoses, n (%)c | |||
| Cancer | 356 (34.5) | 138 (39.2) | 218 (32.1) |
| Diabetes | 298 (28.9) | 121 (34.4) | 177 (26.0) |
| Urinary | 315 (30.5) | 105 (29.8) | 210 (30.9) |
| HIV/AIDS | <5 | <5 | <5 |
| Adiposity | 71 (6.9) | 24 (6.8) | 47 (6.9) |
| Eye disease | 62 (6.0) | 22 (6.3) | 40 (5.9) |
| Psoriasis | 99 (9.6) | 26 (7.4) | 73 (10.7) |
| Tobacco abuse | 371 (35.9) | 103 (29.3) | 268 (39.4) |
| Alcohol abuse | 72 (7.0) | 25 (7.1) | 47 (6.9) |
| Bowel disorders | 150 (14.5) | 51 (14.5) | 99 (14.6) |
| Cardiovascular | 909 (88.1) | 328 (93.2) | 581 (85.4) |
| Musculoskeletal | 747 (72.4) | 245 (69.6) | 502 (73.8) |
| Neurologic | 329 (31.9) | 105 (29.8) | 224 (33.0) |
| Psychological | 499 (48.4) | 171 (48.6) | 328 (48.2) |
| Respiratory | 286 (27.7) | 97 (27.6) | 189 (27.8) |
| Thyroid | 157 (15.2) | 57 (16.2) | 100 (14.7) |
a
Number of medications (defined at fifth anatomical therapeutic chemical level) chronically prescribed in 2020. Chronically prescribed medications were defined as those that were: prescribed a minimum of three times per year (of which one was prescribed in the second half of the year), labelled as ‘chronic’, or registered as ‘repeat >0’.
b
Number of contacts registered for repeated prescriptions in 2019 and 2020.
c
See Supplementary Table S1 for all included ICPC codes per cluster. AIDS = acquired immune deficiency syndrome. HIV = human immunodeficiency virus. ICPC = International Classification of Primary Care. IQR = interquartile range.