Table I.

Characteristics of the generic sample of patients with chronic somatic illness (n = 1377) and the extra sample of patients diagnosed with COPD (n = 225).

	Generic sample	Additional sample of COPD patients
n	%	n	%
Patient characteristics:
Gender
Male	632	46	131	58
Female	745	54	94	42
Age:
15–39 years	69	5	0	0
40–64 years	639	46	91	40
65–74 years	383	28	79	35
≥ 75 years	286	21	55	25
Educational level:
Low	489	36	119	53
Intermediate	549	41	71	32
High Health literacy:1	309	23	33	15
Inadequate	102	8	20	9
Adequate	1229	92	195	91
Type of chronic disease diagnosed:2
Asthma	159	12	20	9
COPD	146	11	225	100
Other chronic respiratory disease	70	5	5	2
Cardiovascular disease/high risk	403	29	51	23
Arthritis	219	16	11	5
Other chronic musculoskeletal disorder	136	10	7	3
Cancer	132	10	5	2
Diabetes mellitus	332	24	21	9
Thyroid dysfunction	115	8	7	3
Migraine	63	5	1	0
Neurological disease	78	6	3	1
Chronic digestive disorder	91	7	8	4
Chronic skin disease	113	8	4	2
Other chronic disease	225	16	15	7
Number of chronic diseases diagnosed:
One	714	52	113	50
Two	397	29	72	32
Three or more	266	19	40	18
Self-rated general health:
Excellent	29	2	2	1
Very good	136	10	11	5
Good	735	54	111	49
Fair	424	31	85	38
Poor	45	3	16	7

Notes: ¹Cronbach's alpha was 0.72, indicating good internal consistency. ²Since a proportion of the patients had been diagnosed with more than one chronic disease, these percentages sum up to more than 100.