Table 1.

Characteristics of patients with prostate cancer and matched controls.

Characteristic	Patients (n = 217)	Controls (n = 1080)
Age in years at diagnosis	n (%)	n (%)
<60	15 (7)	79 (7)
60–69	51 (24)	253 (23)
70–79	100 (46)	494 (46)
≥80	51 (24)	254 (24)
Number of consultations per patient	Median (IQR)	Median (IQR)
In the 2 years	14 (10–21)	10 (5–17)
Excluding last 180 days	9 (5–14)	7 (4–13)
Number of ICPC codes per patient	Median (IQR)	Median (IQR)
In the 2 years	28 (18–42)	18 (9–32)
Excluding last 180 days	17 (9–28)	13 (7–24)

For all the summary consultation and code measures there was strong evidence of higher occurrence in cases than controls: over the whole 2 years P<0.001 for both measures. This was not so once the last 180 days were excluded from analysis: P = 0.41 for consultations, P = 0.12 for codes (Mann–Whitney U test).

IR = interquartile range.

ICPC = International Classification of Primary Care.

IQR = interquartile range.