Table 3 Number of patients with at least one contact with a healthcare provider, number of admissions to the hospital or rehabilitation centre, and mean (SD) annual number of contacts and admissions for both disease groups.
| Number (%) of patients with at least one contact or admission | Mean (SD) number of contacts or admissions | Mean (SD) number of contacts or admissions | p Value | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patients with AS | Patients with RA | Patients with AS with a contact | Patients with RA with a contact | All patients with AS (n = 132) | All patients with RA (n = 576) | ||
| Rheumatologist | 90 (68%) | 517 (91%) | 2.5 (1.9) | 6.3 (5.3) | 1.7 (1.9) | 5.7 (5.4) | <0.001 |
| Rheumatology nurse | 30 (23%) | 172 (30%) | 1.1 (1.5) | 7.0 (7.5) | 0.2 (0.7) | 2.1 (5.2) | 0.002 |
| Physiotherapist/hydrotherapy | 106 (80%) | 149 (26%) | 42.4 (36.3) | 62.1 (37.3) | 34.0 (36.6) | 16.1 (33.2) | <0.001 |
| Home help | 6 (5%) | 73 (13%) | 93.2 (60.7) | 83.2 (95.5) | 4.2 (22.8) | 10.5 (43.7) | 0.009 |
| General practitioner | 78 (59%) | 138 (24%) | 2.4 (3.0) | 11.3 (10.8) | 1.4 (2.6) | 2.7 (7.1) | <0.001 |
| Admission | |||||||
| Hospital | 27 (20%) | 61 (11%) | 7.8 (11.0) | 12.5 (12.4) | 1.6 (5.8) | 1.3 (5.5) | 0.029 |
| Rehabilitation centre | 7 (5%) | 11 (2%) | 17.9 (12.4) | 66.2 (61.9) | 1.0 (4.8) | 1.3 (12.2) | 0.005 |
AS, ankylosing spondylitis; RA, rheumatoid arthritis.
p Values were assessed by the Mann–Whitney U test to test statistically significant differences in number of contacts between the total population with AS and the total population with RA. A p value of <0.05 indicates a statistically significant difference between the two disease populations with respect to contacts and admissions.