Table 4.

Crude and adjusted associations between patient–doctor continuity and time to diagnosis of breast, colorectal, and lung cancer

Covariate	Breast				Colorectal				Lung
	Crude time ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Adjusted time ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Crude time ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Adjusted time ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Crude time ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Adjusted time ratio (95% CI)	P-value
Patient–doctor continuitya	1.01 (1.00 to 1.02)	0.28	1.00 (0.99 to 1.01)	0.90	1.00 (0.99 to 1.00)	0.21	1.01 (1.01 to 1.02)	<0.01	0.98 (0.98 to 0.99)	<0.01	1.00 (0.99 to 1.00)	0.33
Number of consultations	1.00 (1.00 to 1.00)	0.67	1.00 (1.00 to 1.00)	0.07	1.02 (1.02 to 1.02)	<0.01	1.02 (1.01 to 1.02)	<0.01	1.01 (1.01 to 1.02)	<0.01	1.01 (1.01 to 1.01)	<0.01
Patient
Age	0.99 (0.99 to 0.99)	<0.01	0.99 (0.99 to 1.00)	<0.01	1.00 (1.00 to 1.00)	<0.01	1.00 (1.00 to 1.00)	<0.01	1.00 (1.00 to 1.00)	<0.01	1.00 (1.00 to 1.00)	0.20
Female	n/a		n/a		1.08 (1.04 to 1.13)	<0.01	1.05 (1.01 to 1.09)	0.03	1.06 (1.02 to 1.10)	<0.01	1.03 (0.99 to 1.07)	0.12
Multimorbidity	0.95 (0.93 to 0.97)	<0.01	0.97 (0.95 to 1.00	0.04	1.06 (1.04 to 1.08)	<0.01	0.99 (0.98 to 1.01)	0.48	1.06 (1.05 to 1.08)	<0.01	1.02 (1.01 to 1.04)	<0.01
Risk factorb	0.96 (0.79 to 1.15)	0.64	0.92 (0.77 to 1.10)	0.35	1.22 (1.02 to 1.47)	0.03	1.15 (0.96 to 1.37)	0.13	1.30 (1.24 to 1.35)	<0.01	1.19 (1.14 to 1.24)	<0.01
Current smoker	n/a		n/a		n/a		n/a		0.95 (0.92 to 0.99)	0.02	0.90 (0.85 to 0.95)	<0.01
Ex-smoker	n/a		n/a		n/a		n/a		1.03 (0.99 to 1.07)	0.13	0.91 (0.86 to 0.95)	<0.01
Index doctor
Female	0.92 (0.87 to 0.98)	0.01	0.92 (0.86 to 0.98)	0.01	1.02 (0.98 to 1.07)	0.25	1.03 (0.99 to 1.08)	0.15	1.02 (0.99 to 1.07)	0.17	1.00 (0.96 to 1.04)	0.96
Status
Salaried	0.92 (0.68 to 1.25)	0.59	0.91 (0.67 to 1.23)	0.46	0.94 (0.74 to 1.19)	0.72	0.86 (0.68 to 1.09)	0.45	0.99 (0.80 to 1.24)	0.08	1.02 (0.82 to 1.27)	0.15
Locum	1.05 (0.93 to 1.20)		1.07 (0.94 to 1.21)		0.97 (0.89 to 1.06)		1.00 (0.92 to 1.10)		0.92 (0.85 to 0.99)		0.93 (0.86 to 1.00)
Consultation type
Surgery	1.14 (1.02 to 1.29)	0.04	1.13 (1.01 to 1.26)	0.16	1.00 (0.91 to 1.08)	0.17	0.99 (0.91 to 1.08)	0.19	1.07 (0.98 to 1.16)	<0.01	1.08 (0.99 to 1.17)	<0.01
Telephone	1.24 (0.94 to 1.63)		1.22 (0.94 to 1.58)		1.11 (0.98 to 1.27)		1.02 (0.90 to 1.16)		1.09 (0.97 to 1.24)		1.01 (0.90 to 1.14)
Visit	0.99 (0.82 to 1.20)		1.15 (0.95 to 1.38)		0.98 (0.88 to 1.10)		0.91 (0.82 to 1.02)		0.96 (0.86 to 1.06)		0.92 (0.83 to 1.01)
Symptoms/signs
Number	1.38 (0.94 to 2.01)	0.10	1.42 (0.98 to 2.05)	0.06	0.89 (0.81 to 0.98)	0.03	0.96 (0.87 to 1.06)	0.44	0.99 (0.91 to 1.07)	0.74	0.99 (0.91 to 1.07)	0.75
High-risk	0.32 (0.28 to 0.37)	<0.01	0.34 (0.29 to 0.39)	<0.01	0.68 (0.65 to 0.71)	<0.01	0.72 (0.69 to 0.75)	<0.01	0.66 (0.61 to 0.70)	<0.01	0.70 (0.65 to 0.74)	<0.01

^aModified fraction-of-care index (f’); continuity defining period before and after index consultation.

^bBreast cancer: family history of breast cancer; colorectal cancer: ulcerative colitis; lung cancer: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. n/a = not applicable.