Table 1. Sample Demographic and Medical Characteristics.
| Matched Pairs a | All Participants b | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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|
|
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| Characteristic | mHELP n = 52 | Usual Care n = 52 | p | mHELP n = 107 | Usual Care n = 82 | p |
| Demographic characteristic | ||||||
| Age (years), mean (SD) | 72.8 (5.5) | 72.2 (5.6) | - c | 73.3 (6.2) | 72.8 (5.6) | 0.43 |
| Female, n (%) | 24 (46.2) | 24 (46.2) | 1.00 | 47 (43.9) | 35 (42.7) | 0.98 |
| Education (years), mean (SD) | 8.4 (4.9) | 6.8 (5.4) | 0.12 | 8.4 (4.7) | 6.5 (5.7) | 0.02 |
| Medical characteristic | ||||||
| Principal Diagnosis, n (%) | ||||||
| Gastric cancer | 13 (25.0) | 22 (42.3) | 0.11 | 35 (32.7) | 30 (36.6) | 0.69 |
| Periampullary cancer | 18 (34.6) | 8 (15.4) | 0.06 | 31 (29.0) | 12 (14.6) | 0.03 |
| Distal pancreatic cancer | 6 (11.5) | 4 (7.7) | 0.68 | 8 (7.5) | 6 (7.3) | 1.00 |
| Other d | 15 (28.8) | 18 (34.6) | 0.66 | 33 (32.8) | 34 (41.5) | 0.22 |
| Malignancy, n (%) | 40 (76.9) | 39 (75.0) | 1.00 | 87 (81.3) | 61 (74.4) | 0.32 |
| Charlson index, mean (SD) | 1.6 (1.5) | 1.6 (1.7) | - c | 1.5 (1.5) | 2.2 (2.2) | 0.03 |
| Type of surgical procedure | ||||||
| Open, n (%) | 40 (76.9) | 45 (86.5) | 0.36 | 78 (72.9) | 71 (86.6) | 0.04 |
| Laparoscopic, n (%) | 5 (9.6) | 0 (0) | NA e | 10 (9.3) | 0 (0) | 0.01 |
| Laparoscopic-assisted, n (%) | 7 (13.5) | 7 (13.5) | 1.00 | 19 (17.8) | 11 (13.4) | 0.54 |
| Duration of surgery (min), mean (SD) | 226.2 (94.0) | 203.0 (70.0) | 0.15 | 226.8 (91.1) | 199.0 (68.7) | 0.02 |
| Length of hospital stay (days), mean (SD) | 17.6 (12.7) | 18.1 (13.6) | 0.85 | 17.3 (11.0) | 20.5 (18.2) | 0.17 |
| Baseline Frailty, n (%) | ||||||
| Frail (4 or 5 criteria) | 6 (11.5) | 6 (11.5) | - c | 8 (7.5) | 18 (22.0) | <.01 |
| Pre-Frail (2 or 3 criteria) | 44 (84.6) | 44 (84.6) | - c | 67 (62.6) | 58 (70.7) | 0.31 |
| Non-Frail (0 or 1 criteria) | 2 (3.8) | 2 (3.8) | - c | 32 (29.9) | 6 (7.3) | <.01 |
Notes.
Differences in participants' characteristics between matched pairs were evaluated using the McNemar test for binary variables and the paired t-test for continuous variables.
Differences in participants' characteristics between all samples were evaluated using chi-square test or Fisher's exact test for binary variables and the t-test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test for continuous variables.
The association between the matching variable and exposure (intervention) is broken by cohort matching, so the hypothesis testing is not meaningful.28
Diagnoses included gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), appendiceal cancer, ileal tumor, ischemia bowel, colon tumor, and common bile duct adenocarcinoma.
The McNemar test was unable to obtain the p-value due to zero cell count.