Table 2. Patient Demographics by Emergency Department Visits.

	ED Visits
Variables	No, n = 10310	Yes, n = 3185	p-value
Age, IQR	70 (62, 80)	65 (56, 78)	<0.001
Sex			<0.001
Female	4	7
Male	96	93
Race a			<0.001
White	81	77
Black	14	19
Hispanics	3	3
Other	2	2
Smoker (yes)	16	25	<0.001
Substance use disorder (yes)	6	14	<0.001
Severe mental illness b (yes)	8	16	<0.001
Service connection (%)
0–25	11	11	0.67
26–50	6	8	<0.001
51–75	4	6	<0.001
76–100	6	12	<0.001
Period of service			<0.001
Otherc	2	2
Korean	19	13
Persian Gulf War	9	11
Post-Korean War Period	10	7
Post-Vietnam War Period	7	13
Vietnam War	35	39
World War II	17	15
Outside insurance status (yes)	72	61	<0.001
Primary care user level			<0.001
Low (<3 visits/year)	64	30
High (≥3 visits/year)	36	70
Continuity	98	96	<0.001
<33%	2	5	<0.001
33%–50%	8	16
>50%	91	79
Comorbidities
Coronary artery disease/MI	23	23	0.91
Congestive heart failure	2	6	<0.001
Diabetes mellitus	24	29	<0.001
Hypertension	65	63	0.15
Peripheral vascular disease	5	6	0.004
Pulmonary disorder/COPD	9	17	<0.001
Stroke/TIA	4	6	<0.001
Alcohol	5	10	<0.001
Drug	2	6	<0.001
Pneumonia	0	0.03	0.24
Schizophrenia	1	2	<0.001
Bipolar disorder	1	3	<0.001
Major Depression	2	5	<0.001
PTSD	5	8	<0.001
Hyperlipidemia	58	52	<0.001
Influenza	31	41	<0.001
Overweight/obesity	14	17	<0.001
Primary care visits, IQR	2 (1, 3)	4 (2, 6)	<0.001
Continuity visits, IQR	2 (1, 3)	3 (2, 4)	<0.001
Assigned provider(s)			<0.001
PCP only	82	79
Trainee & PCP	18	21
Zip code distance from ED			<0.001
≤2	13	20
3–5	9	16
6–10	1	2
11–50	20	14
>50	57	49

Abbreviations: IQR, interquartile range; MI, myocardial infarction; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; TIA, transient ischemic attack; PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; PCP, primary care provider.

^aSixty-nine percent (69%) were missing this variable.

^bComposite of major depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and PTSD.

^cBecause of the small number of veterans in these groups, they were combined: active military personnel, CAV/NPS, ChampVA spouse and children, non-Veteran humanitarian groups, merchant marines, and Tricare.