Table 1.

Respondents’ characteristics by consent group

Characteristic	Consented		Non-consented		χ 2 (p)
	n	%	n	%
Respondent
- Patient	309	45.0	378	55.0	0.71 (0.22)
- Parent/Carer	108	48.2	116	51.8
Age (year)
- Mean	42.2		43.9		F test: 1.79
- Standard Deviation	18.3		18.4		(0.18)
Gender
- Male	188	46.8	214	53.2	0.20 (0.35)
- Female	224	48.3	240	51.7
Indigenous status
- Indigenousa	23	54.8	19	45.2	0.66 (0.26)
- Non-Indigenous	389	48.3	416	51.7
Country of birth
- Australia	322	49.2	333	50.8	2.36 (0.07)
- Other	90	43.1	119	56.9
Household weekly income
- $1–249	23	54.8	19	45.2	2.46 (0.65)
- $250–599	87	51.5	82	48.5
- $600–999	104	52.0	96	48.0
- $1000–1599	84	45.7	100	54.3
- $1600,+	65	52.4	59	47.6
Highest education
- None/Primary	46	54.1	39	45.9	2.63 (0.27)
- High school/ Trade	207	46.7	236	53.3
- Tertiary	157	51.6	147	48.4
General health status
- Poor	22	45.8	26	54.2	1.25 (0.87)
- Fair	55	50.9	53	49.1
- Good	113	46.3	131	53.7
- Very good	122	44.9	150	55.1
- Excellent	100	45.2	121	54.8
Patient perceived priority
1 - Immediately	54	49.5	55	50.5	3.80 (0.43)
2 - Within 10 min	63	42.9	84	57.1
3 - Within 30 min	128	44.1	162	55.9
4 - Within 60 min	100	50.3	99	49.7
5 - Within 2 h	61	50.8	59	49.2
ED use in past 6 months
- None	228	46.1	267	53.9	1.80 (0.41)
- 1–2 times	132	48.9	138	51.1
- 3,+ times	53	41.7	74	58.3
Totalb	417	45.8	494	54.2

^aIncludes Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders

^bWhere the sum of sub-categories does not equal the Total, indicates missing values