Table 1. Distribution of the fatalism scores (n=4,319 patients who completed a post-diagnosis interview themselves, with fully observed information on fatalism score and stage at diagnosis).

	Patient characteristic	N	Median	Mean	P
Sex *	Men	2372	11	10.5	<0.001
	Women	1947	11	10.9
Age at diagnosis *	<55	950	11	10.8	<0.001
	55-59	553	10	10.4
	60-64	604	11	10.4
	65-69	671	11	10.7
	70-74	588	11	10.7
	75-80	525	11	10.9
	80+	428	11	10.9
Race/ethnicity	White	3115	11	10.5	<0.001
	Hispanic	310	12	11.3
	Black	577	11	11.3
	Asian	200	11	10.9
	Other	117	11	11.3
Educational attainment	<High school	730	12	11.8	<0.001
	High school/some college	2514	11	10.9
	≥College degree	1070	9	9.5
	Missing	5	12	12.4
Income in past year (US $)	<20,000	1181	12	11.3	<0.001
	20,000 - 39,999	1133	11	10.8
	40,000 - 59,999	677	10	10.4
	≥60,000	1000	10	9.8
	Missing	328	12	11.2
Study site	5 Integrated health-care delivery systems	606	10	10.3	<0.001
	8 counties in Northern California	905	11	10.4
	Los Angeles County	962	11	10.5
	State of Alabama	486	12	11.4
	22 counties in North Carolina	446	11	11.1
	State of Iowa	409	11	11.0
	15 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers	505	11	10.9
Married/living with partner	Yes	2686	11	10.6	0.01
	No	1630	11	10.8
	Missing	3	9	9.7
Smoking status	Never smoker	1242	11	10.8	<0.001
	Former smoker	2583	11	10.6
	Current smoker	487	11	11.0
	Missing	7	11	11.1
Co-morbidities (count of)	0**	1724	11	10.7	0.24
	1	1441	11	10.6
	2	718	11	10.8
	≥3	436	11	10.9
Symptom status at diagnosis	‘Yes, symptomatic’	3541	11	10.7	0.23
	‘No, diagnosed without symptoms’	777	11	10.6
	Missing	1	12	12.0
Cancer site *	Colorectal	2396	11	10.6	0.06
	Lung	1923	11	10.8
Stage at diagnosis *	I	1266	11	10.7	0.007
	II	849	11	10.5
	III	1287	11	10.6
	IV	917	11	10.9
Fatalism scores *	4	98
	5	47
	6	108
	7	151
	8	443
	9	505
	10	544
	11	664
	12	923
	13	322
	14	179
	15	133
	16	202
Health status a year before interview	Median 90 (inter-quartile range 75-100)	4,286
Total		4,319

^*Information on these variables was fully observed (no ‘missing’ values) in the analysis sample

^**Included missing observations