Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of the telemonitoring (TM) and control group prior to and post entropy balancing (EB)

Variables	TM	Control		D-statistica		p valueb
		Before EB	After EB	Before EB	After EB	Before EB	After EB
Sample size (N)	651	7047		–	–	–	–
Mean age (years)	64.24	69.47	64.24	48.55	0.00	<0.05	1
Female	43.93	49.17	43.93	10.51	0.00	<0.001	1
FEV1 values
FEV1 ≥70 %	6.91	7.25	6.91	1.32	0.00	0.81	1
70 % > FEV1 ≥ 50 %	17.20	17.28	17.20	0.21	0.00	1	1
50 % > FEV1 ≥ 35 %	24.73	17.75	24.73	17.12	0.00	<0.001	1
FEV1 < 35 %	39.63	25.20	39.63	31.19	0.00	<0.001	1
FEV unknown	11.52	32.51	11.52	52.35	0.00	<0.001	1
Tobacco addiction	39.63	23.64	39.63	34.90	0.00	<0.001	1
Insurance status				0.00	0.00
Mandatory	29.03	21.77	29.03	16.74	0.00	<0.001	1
Pensionary	64.98	71.69	64.98	14.46	0.00	<0.001	1
Voluntary	5.99	6.54	5.99	2.27	0.00	0,68	1
DMP COPD enrolment	62.21	37.16	62.21	51.74	0.00	<0.001	1
Elixhauser comorbidities (see Appendix)
Before EB	8 of 31 significantly different at p < 0.05
After EB	0 of 31 significantly different at p < 0.05
Pharmacy-based classes (see Appendix)
Before EB	10 of 32 significantly different at p < 0.05
After EB	0 of 32 significantly different at p < 0.05

All values in % unless indicated otherwise

EB entropy balancing

^aD-statistic represents the standardised mean difference

^b p value: Fisher’s exact test for dichotomous and t-test for continuous variables