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. 2026 Mar 10;76(765):e297–e308. doi: 10.3399/BJGP.2025.0369

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.