Table 1.
Number of practices, patients' characteristics and grading according to the official Austrian grading system
| Year | 1997 | 2004 |
| Participating practices | N = 11 | N = 13 |
| Total number of patients | N = 198 | N = 261 |
| n (%) | n (%) | |
| Sex | ||
| m | 56 (28.3) | 79 (30.3) |
| f | 142 (71.7) | 182 (69.7) |
| Mean age | ||
| m/f | 77.2 (SD 17.5) | 79.9 (SD 13.7) |
| m* | 72.1 (SD 18.2) | 76.3 (SD 16.1) |
| f* | 79.2 (SD 16.8) | 81.4 (SD 12.2) |
| Married | 56 (28.3) | 76 (29.1) |
| Divorced | 4 (2.0) | 19 (7.3) |
| Widowed | 110 (55.6) | 139 (53.3) |
| Single | 28 (14.1) | 27 (10.3) |
| Former occupation | ||
| Housewife | 81 (40.9) | 96 (36.8) |
| Self-employed | 41 (20.7) | 46 (17.6) |
| Employed | 62 (31.3) | 106 (40.6) |
| None | 14 (7.1) | 13 (5.0) |
| Care provided by | †N = 197 | †N = 257 |
| Relatives | 169 (85.8%) | 218 (84.8%) |
| Professional health care services | 28 (14%) | 83 (38.1%) |
| Degrees of the official grading system | Number of patients (attached to degree 1–7) | |
| n (%) | n (%) | |
| 1+2‡ | 43 (24.7) | 109 (51.9) |
| 3+4 | 103 (59.2) | 85 (40.5) |
| 5+6+7 | 28 (16.1) | 16 (7.6) |
| †174 (100.0) | †210(100.0) | |
*1997 as well as 2004 there was a significant difference in the age between men and women [p = 0.0093 (1997); p = 0.014 (2004)] in the t-test.
†Assessment was not available in all cases of the years 1997 and 2004
‡Compared with the year 1997 there was a tendency towards more patients in the group of the less severe cases (degree 1+2) in the year 2004 (p < 0.0001) in the official grading system.