Table 2. Summary of the proportion of patients and mean events per patient per month of the included healthcare use measures 12 to 1 month prediagnosis by diagnostic route.
| Healthcare event type | Emergency diagnosis ( n = 1491, 33%) | Routine referral ( n = 1026, 23%) | Urgent referral ( n = 1259, 28%) | Othera ( n = 697, 16%) | P-valueb |
| Proportion of patients with ≥1 event, n (%) | |||||
| Consultations | |||||
| Any | 1473 (98.8) | 1023 (99.7) | 1252 (99.4) | 684 (98.1) | <0.001 |
| With any selected six relevant symptomsc | 859 (57.6) | 669 (65.2) | 891 (70.8) | 400 (57.4) | <0.001 |
| With any selected three respiratory symptomsd | 791 (53.1) | 610 (59.5) | 833 (66.2) | 355 (50.9) | <0.001 |
| With cough | 472 (31.7) | 433 (42.2) | 606 (48.1) | 223 (32.0) | <0.001 |
| With dyspnoea | 533 (35.7) | 327 (31.9) | 367 (29.2) | 210 (30.1) | <0.001 |
| With haemoptysis | 35 (2.3) | 71 (6.9) | 104 (8.3) | 25 (3.6) | <0.001 |
| Imaging eventse | |||||
| Any chest imaging | 604 (88.8) | 449 (91.1) | 552 (92.8) | 244 (83.8) | <0.001 |
| Chest X-ray | 577 (84.9) | 399 (80.9) | 513 (86.2) | 224 (77.0) | <0.001 |
| Chest CT | 341 (50.1) | 353 (71.6) | 465 (78.2) | 179 (61.5) | <0.001 |
| Events per patient per month, mean (95% CI)f | |||||
| Consultations | |||||
| Any | 1.10 (1.02 to 1.17) | 1.21 (1.11 to 1.30) | 0.93 (0.86 to 1.00) | 0.99 (0.89 to 1.09) | — |
| With any selected six relevant symptomsc | 0.06 (0.05 to 0.07) | 0.09 (0.07 to 0.11) | 0.08 (0.06 to 0.10) | 0.07 (0.05 to 0.09) | — |
| With any selected three respiratory symptomsd | 0.05 (0.05 to 0.07) | 0.05 (0.04 to 0.07) | 0.05 (0.04 to 0.07) | 0.06 (0.04 to 0.08) | — |
| With cough | 0.03 (0.02 to 0.03) | 0.05 (0.03 to 0.06) | 0.05 (0.04 to 0.06) | 0.04 (0.02 to 0.05) | — |
| With dyspnoea | 0.03 (0.02 to 0.04) | 0.03 (0.02 to 0.04) | 0.02 (0.01 to 0.03) | 0.03 (0.01 to 0.04) | — |
| With haemoptysis | 0.00 (0.00 to 0.00) | 0.01 (0.00 to 0.01) | 0.00 (0.00 to 0.01) | 0.00 (0.00 to 0.00) | — |
| Imaging eventse | |||||
| Any chest imaging | 0.04 (0.02 to 0.05) | 0.06 (0.04 to 0.07) | 0.04 (0.03 to 0.05) | 0.05 (0.03 to 0.06) | — |
| Chest X-ray | 0.03 (0.02 to 0.04) | 0.04 (0.03 to 0.05) | 0.03 (0.02 to 0.04) | 0.03 (0.02 to 0.05) | — |
| Chest CT | 0.01 (0.00 to 0.01) | 0.02 (0.01 to 0.03) | 0.01 (0.01 to 0.01) | 0.01 (0.01 to 0.02) | — |
aOther routes include: inpatient elective, other managed pathway, DCO (diagnosis by death certificate only), and unknown. 17 bOne-way ANOVA. cSymptoms include appetite loss, weight loss, fatigue, cough, dyspnoea, and haemoptysis. dSymptoms include cough, dyspnoea, and haemoptysis. eProportions calculated out of all patients diagnosed after 1 April 2012 (emergency presentation, n = 680; routine referral, n = 493; urgent referral, n = 595; and other, n = 291). fExcluding the month immediately before diagnosis. CT = computed tomography.