Table 1.
Characteristics of Toronto School Children with Asthma Questionnaire and Health Claims Data, 2006a
| Variable | Respondents n = 2884 n (%) |
Non-respondents n = 2735 n (%) |
P-value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physician Diagnosis of asthma (n = 5461) | 438 (15.71%) | 409 (15.34%) | 0.73 |
| Male sex (n = 5573) | 1459 (50.84%) | 1313 (48.58%) | 0.09 |
| Mean age in years (n = 4781) | 6.75 | 6.72 | 0.20 |
| Income adequacy (n = 5241) | <0.0001 | ||
| Lowest income | 469 (16.82%) | 466 (19.00%) | |
| Lower middle | 568 (20.37%) | 592 (24.14%) | |
| Upper middle | 577 (20.69%) | 624 (25.45%) | |
| Highest income | 1175 (42.13%) | 770 (31.40%) | |
| Highest level of education (n = 5421) | <0.0001 | ||
| Less than high school | 189 (6.75%) | 267 (10.19%) | |
| Completed high school | 278 (9.92%) | 340 (12.98%) | |
| Completed postsecondary education | 879 (31.37%) | 962 (36.73%) | |
| Completed post graduate education | 1456 (51.96%) | 1050 (40.09%) | |
| Number of visits to health care provider in the last year (n = 5237) | <0.0001 | ||
| 0 | 678 (24.85%) | 742 (29.57%) | |
| 1-4 | 1471 (53.92%) | 1213 (48.35%) | |
| >=5 | 579 (21.22%) | 554 (22.08%) | |
| Physician visits in last year (n = 5237) | <0.0001 | ||
| No regular physician | 678 (24.85%) | 742 (29.57%) | |
| Pediatrician only | 936 (34.31%) | 771 (30.73%) | |
| General Practitioner only | 486 (17.82%) | 375 (14.95%) | |
| Pediatrician & General Practitioner | 628 (23.02%) | 621 (24.75%) | |
| Environmental tobacco smoke exposure in home (n = 5383) | 302 (10.94%) | 328 (12.51%) | 0.07 |
aRespondents are T-CHEQ participants who agreed to health claims data linkage while non-respondents did not agree and are therefore not included in the study population. The T-CHEQ study was a population-based sample.