Table 1.

Characteristics of diabetic patients according to whether they attended public or private clinics (n = 253)

Categorical Characteristic	Number (%)	Number (%) attending public clinic n = 126	Number (%) attending private clinic n = 127	P value by Chi Square
Gender**: Male	97 (39)	29 (23)	68 (54)	< 0.01
Female	154 (61)	97 (77)	57 (46)
Have hypertension*	144 (72)	71 (72)	73 (73)	0.95
Have vascular disease	33 (13)	23 (18)	10 (8)	0.01
On Statin	63 (25)	34 (27)	29 (23)	0.45
On Biguanide	167 (66)	77(61)	90 (71)	0.10
On Sulphonylurea	172 (68)	80 (64)	92 (72)	0.13
On Insulin	54 (21)	35 (28)	19 (15)	0.01
On Glucosidase	30 (12)	12 (10)	18 (14)	0.25
On aspirin	39 (15)	20 (16)	19 (15)	0.84
Continuous Characteristic	Number with valid data	Mean (SD)	Mean attending public clinic	Mean attending private clinic	P value by t-test
Age (years)	252	64 (12)	65.3	63.3	.17
Weight (kg)	202	82 (21)	76.5	88.2	.00
Clinic visits/yr	251	4.7 (1.7)	5.2	4.3	< .01
Years since first recorded diagnosis	246	9.0 (5.9)	11.4	6.6	< .01

*Only the 199 persons (99 public and 100 private) selected because they were diabetic are included. The 54 persons selected because they had hypertension, but also happened to have diabetes are excluded.

** For gender, n = 251 (126 public and 125 private)