Table 2.
Baseline characteristics of participants
| Characteristics | PaTH group (N = 163) |
Control group (N = 141) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Female sex, n (%) | 101 (62.0%) | 83 (58.9%) | |
| Age, mean (SD), range | 83.1 (5.7) 71–96 | 82.4 (5.7) 70–96 | |
| Living alone, n (%) | 107 (65.6%) | 97 (68.8%) | |
| Chronic conditionsa, mean, SD) | 3.5 (2.0) | 3.8 (1.8) | |
| Primary diagnoses at index hospital stay, n (%) | |||
| Cardiac / vascular | 53 (32.5%) | 38 (27.0%) | |
| Infections | 31 (19.0%) | 24 (17.0%) | |
| Fractures / contusions | 28 (17.2%) | 21 (14.9%) | |
| Cancers | 13 (8.0%) | 16 (11.3%) | |
| Pulmonary disease | 5 (3.1%) | 4 (2.8%) | |
| Neurological disease | 1 (0.6%) | 8 (5.7%) | |
| Other diseases | 32 (19.6%) | 30 (21.3%) | |
| Functional level (IPLOS score)b, mean (SD) | 2.06 (0.47) | 1.89 (0.46) | |
aChronic diseases include established diseases like e.g. stroke, but not risk factors such as hypertension or hypercholesterolemia
bIPLOS data [22] consisting of 17 variables on activities of daily living, both instrumental (e.g. prepare food) and non-instrumental (e.g. personal hygiene). Lower scores imply greater independence