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. 2010 Sep 21;8:104. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-8-104

Table 1.

Demographics of patients

Respondents (N = 1933) Non respondents (N = 356) p-valuea

N (%) Mean (SD) N (%) Mean (SD)
Age 61.6 (12.1) 65.7 (12.9) < 0.001

Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) 61.6 (16.4) 46.0 (16.0) < 0.001

Mini Mental State (MMS), total score 26.9 (3.3) 25.7 (4.0) 0.003

Time since diagnosis (months) 32.8 (46.7) 25.3 (44.3) 0.001

Time on opioids (months) 5.2 (11.3) 3.1 (7.1) 0.002

Gender Female 922 (47.7) 165 (47.1) 0.862
Male 1011 (52.3) 185 (52.9)

Department Hospitalized patients 1513 (78.3) 338 (97.1) < 0.001
Out-patients 420 (21.7) 10 (2.9)

Status of opioid treatment Recently initiated, titration 353 (18.4) 94 (27.5) < 0.001
Stable dosing 1564 (81.6) 248 (72.5)

Metastasesb Bone 875 (45.3) 146 (42.0) 0.266
CNS 104 (5.4) 28 (8.0) 0.060
Liver 466 (24.1) 95 (27.3) 0.223
Lung 426 (22.0) 77 (22.1) 1.000
Other 762 (39.4) 151 (43.4) 0.172

Cancer diagnosisb Breast 268 (13.9) 33 (9.5) 0.025
Female reproductive organs 145 (7.5) 29 (8.3) 0.584
Gastrointestinal 442 (22.9) 83 (23.8) 0.730
Haematological 113 (5.8) 20 (5.7) 1.000
Head and neck 105 (5.4) 20 (5.7) 0.799
Lung 346 (17.9) 71 (20.6) 0.257
Other 168 (8.7) 40 (11.5) 0.106
Prostate 230 (11.9) 34 (9.7) 0.275
Unknown origin 51 (2.6) 11 (3.2) 0.591
Urological 139 (7.2) 27 (7.7) 0.737

Country Denmark 29 (1.5) 2 (0.6) 0.213
Finland 30 (1.6) 0 0.010
Germany 273 (14.1) 178 (50.0) < 0.001
Greece 5 (0.3) 0 1.000
Iceland 145 (7.5) 5 (1.4) < 0.001
Italy 398 (20.6) 62 (17.4) 0.195
Lithuania 54 (2.8) 0 < 0.001
Norway 475 (24.6) 88 (24.7) 0.947
Sweden 119 (6.2) 16 (4.5) 0.270
Switzerland 114 (5.9) 1 (0.3) < 0.001
United Kingdom 291 (15.1) 4 (1.1) < 0.001

Reason for not completing all assessment forms Did not want to complete 96 (27.8)
Too ill 177 (51.3)
Unknown reason 72 (20.9)

aP-values from Mann-Whitney U test or Fisher's Exact test (2 × 2-tables)

bSome patients had more than one cancer diagnosis and more than one localization of metastases, consequently the sum of percentages is larger than 100.