. 2016 Nov;9(8):455–465.

Table.

Patients' Baseline Characteristics

	Interventional therapy
Age-group	Sclerotherapy (N = 4778)	Laser ablation (N = 14,007)	Radiofrequency ablation (N = 9125)	Surgery (N = 4851)	Multiple therapies (same day) (N = 11,265)	Interventional therapy (combined) (N = 44,026)	Surveillance and compression therapy (N = 100,072)
Age, yrs, mean (SD)	53.3 (12.8)	53.1 (12.7)	54.2 (13.0)^a	51.9 (12.2)^a	52.1 (12.1)^a	53.0 (12.6)	58.2 (15.6)^a
Female, N (%)	4339 (90.8)	10,658 (76.1)^a	6697 (73.4)^a	3592 (74.1)^a	8382 (74.4)^a	33,668 (76.5)	68,321 (68.3)^a
Region, N (%)
Northeast	891 (18.7)	2576 (18.4)^a	1820 (20.0)^a	1103 (22.7)^a	1940 (17.2)^a	8330 (18.9)	19,925 (19.9)^a
North Central	2072 (43.4)	4843 (34.6)^a	1781 (19.5)^a	1485 (30.6)^a	3247 (28.8)^a	13,428 (30.5)	25,378 (25.4)^a
South	965 (20.2)	4633 (33.1)^a	3608 (39.5)^a	1241 (25.6)^a	3491 (31.0)^a	13,938 (31.7)	31,728 (31.7)^a
West	799 (16.7)	1668 (11.9)^a	1778 (19.5)^a	936 (19.3)^a	2379 (21.1)^a	7560 (17.2)	20,805 (20.8)^a
Unknown	51 (1.1)	287 (2.1)^a	138 (1.5)^a	86 (1.8)^a	208 (1.9)^a	770 (1.8)	2236 (2.2)^a
Plan type, N (%)
HMO	769 (16.1)	1589 (11.3)^a	1492 (16.4)^a	815 (16.8)^a	1677 (14.9)^a	6342 (14.4)	16,142 (16.1)^a
POS	319 (6.7)	1171 (8.4)^a	681 (7.5)^a	484 (10.0)^a	1092 (9.7)^a	3747 (8.5)	6810 (6.8)^a
PPO	2465 (51.6)	8236 (58.8)^a	5031 (55.1)^a	2690 (55.5)^a	6458 (57.3)^a	24,880 (56.5)	53,329 (53.3)^a
Other^b	1225 (25.6)	3011 (21.5)^a	1921 (21.1)^a	862 (17.8)^a	2038 (18.1)^a	9057 (20.6)	23,791 (23.8)^a
Physician specialty, N (%)
Surgeon	1535 (32.1)	4227 (30.2)^a	3676 (40.3)^a	1938 (40.0)^a	4391 (39.0)^a	15,767 (35.8)	16,628 (16.6)^a
Medical doctor	232 (4.9)	869 (6.2)^a	713 (7.8)^a	434 (9.0)^a	805 (7.2)^a	3053 (6.9)	7069 (7.1)^a
Dermatology	353 (7.4)	389 (2.8)^a	157 (1.7)^a	80 (1.7)^a	189 (1.7)^a	1168 (2.7)	12,387 (12.4)^a
Internal medicine	321 (6.7)	1286 (9.2)^a	427 (4.7)^a	216 (4.5)^a	560 (5.0)^a	2810 (6.4)	10,285 (10.3)^a
Family practice	757 (15.8)	2007 (14.3)^a	900 (9.9)^a	480 (9.9)^a	1215 (10.8)^a	5359 (12.2)	18,098 (18.1)^a
Other^b	1580 (33.1)	5229 (37.3)^a	3252 (35.6)^a	1703 (35.1)^a	4105 (36.4)^a	15,869 (36.0)	35,605 (35.6)^a
CCI, mean (SD)	0.4 (0.9)	0.5 (1.0)^a	0.6 (1.1)^a	0.4 (0.9)	0.4 (0.9)	0.5 (1.0)	0.9 (1.5)^a
Unique diagnoses, N, mean (SD)	10.7 (7.4)	10.4 (7.4)^a	10.9 (7.8)	9.8 (7.1)^a	9.6 (7.0)^a	10.3 (7.4)	12.4 (9.2)^a
Unique prescription classes, N, mean (SD)	5.4 (5.1)	4.9 (5.1)^a	5.3 (5.5)	4.6 (4.8)^a	4.7 (4.8)^a	5.0 (5.1)	5.9 (6.0)^a
Thomson Reuters disease stage^c at baseline,^d mean (SD)	3.0 (1.7)	3.3 (1.7)^a	3.3 (1.8)^a	2.9 (1.8)^a	3.1 (1.7)	3.2 (1.7)	3.3 (2.2)^a

Values indicate significance (P <.05) versus the sclerotherapy cohort; the interventional therapy cohort was not compared with the sclerotherapy cohort.

Includes “missing” and “unknown.”

The Thomson Reuters Disease Staging system is a proprietary coding criterion that involves a hierarchic assessment of markers of disease severity based on the presence of ICD-9-CM codes. A modified version (version 5.27) was used for this analysis.17

Baseline period of the 12-month preindex diagnosis period + the index diagnosis date.

CCI indicates Charlson Comorbidity Index; HMO, health maintenance organization; ICD-9-CM, International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification; POS, point of service; PPO, preferred provider organization; SD, standard deviation.