Table 1.
Description of outcomes and confounding factors included
| Variable | Variable description | Variable type |
| Primary healthcare use | ||
| GP practice | This variable records all consultations participants had with a healthcare professional 12 months prior to each MDHA at each time point. | Outcome |
| GP practice out of hours | ||
| Practice nurse/practitioner/HCA | ||
| Community nurse | ||
| Health visitor | ||
| Dietician | ||
| Phlebotomist | ||
| Other | ||
| Not specified | ||
| Clerical | ||
| Pharmacist/pharmacy technician | ||
| Chiropodist/podiatrist | ||
| Physiotherapist | ||
| Counsellor/practice counsellor | ||
| Psychiatrist | ||
| Mental health worker | ||
| Secondary healthcare use | ||
| Inpatient | Time spent by participants for each different type of hospital admission. Days spent during the 12 month prior to MDHA. Number of visits during the 3 months prior to MDHA. |
Outcome |
| Day patient | ||
| Outpatient | ||
| A&E | ||
| Time | This is a continuous measure of time in years from the start of baseline interview to participant’s death. | Covariate |
| Living status | ||
| Alone in community | Participant’s living arrangements at each MDHA. | Covariate |
| Not alone in community | ||
| Institutional living | ||
| Self-rated health | ||
| Excellent/very good | Participant’s perception of their general health on a five-point scale recoded into three categories. | Covariate |
| Good | ||
| Fair/poor | ||
| MMSE | ||
| Normal (26–30) | Participant’s categorised MMSE scores at each MDHA. | Covariate |
| Mild (22–25) | ||
| Mod (18–21) | ||
| Severe (0–17) | ||
| GDS | ||
| No depression | Categorised GDS collected at each MDHA. | Covariate |
| Mild | ||
| Severe | ||
| MMSE<15 | ||
| Categorised disability | ||
| None | Categorised disability score based on activities of daily living, collected at each MDHA. | Covariate |
| 1–6 | ||
| 7–12 | ||
| 13–17 | ||
| Disease groups | ||
| 0 | Categorised disease groups (maximum eight). Eight disease groups were identified with each scored 1 if the participants had a GP diagnosis of said disease at each GPRR. Disease groups included the following: arthritis, cancer, cardiac disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, respiratory disease and cognitive Impairment. | Covariate |
| 1 | ||
| 2–3 | ||
| 4+ |
A&E, accidents and emergency; GDS, Geriatric Depression Score; GP, general practitioner; GPRR, GP record review; HCA, healthcare assistant; MDHA, multidimensional health assessment; MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination.