Table 1.
Baseline characteristics at three levels: patients, prescribers and practices
| Variables | Overall (%) (95% CI) |
Public Sector (%) (95% CI) |
Private Sector (%) (95% CI) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patient Level | n = 22,832 | n = 13,473 | n = 9359 |
| Polypharmacy | 20.3 (17.0–24.0) | 26.7 (22.9–31.0) | 11.0 (7.1–16.6) |
| Age, median years (IQR) | 71.2 (67.3–76.0) | 70.5 (67.1–75.1) | 73.0 (68.0–77.4) |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 46.4 (43.4–49.4) | 46.0 (41.9–50.3) | 46.9 (42.9–51.1) |
| Female | 53.6 (50.6–56.6) | 54.0 (49.7–58.1) | 53.1 (48.9–57.1) |
| Ethnicity | |||
| Malay | 43.2 (37.0–49.7) | 48.5 (40.0–57.2) | 35.6 (27.0–45.1) |
| Chinese | 43.0 (36.4–50.0) | 35.3 (27.7–43.7) | 54.2 (43.2–64.8) |
| Indian | 9.6 (7.5–12.3) | 12.5 (9.7–16.0) | 5.5 (3.5–8.5) |
| Other | 4.1 (2.6–6.4) | 3.6 (1.8–7.2) | 4.7 (2.6–8.4) |
| Education level | |||
| No Formal Edu | 25.5 (21.6–29.9) | 24.8 (20.0–30.4) | 26.5 (20.1–34.1) |
| Primary | 42.5 (38.1–47.0) | 47.9 (43.8–52.0) | 34.6 (27.0–43.0) |
| Secondary | 28.9 (22.9–35.8) | 24.2 (20.1–28.9) | 35.6 (23.4–50.0) |
| Tertiary | 3.1 (2.3–4.3) | 3.0 (2.0–4.5) | 3.3 (2.0–5.5) |
| Multimorbidity* | 47.4 (41.3–53.5) | 62.9 (57.7–67.8) | 25.0 (12.8–43.1) |
| Prescriber Level | n = 3992 | n = 1590 | n = 2401 |
| Experience, median years (IQR) | 14.0 (3.0–24.0) | 2.0 (1.0–5.0) | 22.0 (15.0–29.0) |
| Working hours, mean hours per week | 48.1 (46.8–49.5) | 43.1 (42.3–43.8) | 51.5 (49.4–53.6) |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 41.9 (37.0–47.0) | 30.8 (25.0–37.3) | 76.1 (70.1–81.3) |
| Female | 58.1 (53.0–63.0) | 69.2 (62.7–75.0) | 23.9 (18.7–29.9) |
| FMS | 2.1 (1.3–3.4) | 4.7 (2.9–7.5) | 0.4 (0.1–2.7) |
| Place of graduation | |||
| Foreign | 50.3 (45.7–54.9) | 51.3 (45.5–57.0) | 49.6 (43.1–56.2) |
| Local | 49.7 (45.1–54.3) | 48.7 (43.0–54.5) | 50.4 (43.8–56.9) |
| Practice Level | n = 2914 | n = 564 | n = 2350 |
| Workload, median (IQR) | 30.0 (20.0–43.0) | 43.7 (28.0–54.6) | 30.0 (18.0–40.0) |
| Sector | |||
| Public | 19.3 (17.4–21.4) | – | – |
| Private | 80.7 (78.6–82.6) | – | – |
| Operation day per week | |||
| Five | 19.1 (16.3–22.3) | 82.9 (73.0–89.7) | 3.8 (2.0–7.4) |
| Six | 47.2 (41.7–52.7) | 5.5 (2.5–11.7) | 57.2 (50.5–63.6) |
| Seven | 33.7 (28.4–39.4) | 11.6 (6.0–21.4) | 39.0 (32.7–45.7) |
| Practice with FMS | 11.0 (8.5–14.2) | 47.1 (36.2–58.2) | 2.4 (1.0–5.6) |
| Practice type | |||
| Group | 37.7 (32.7–42.9) | 85.8 (77.1–91.6) | 26.1 (20.6–32.5) |
| Solo | 62.3 (57.1–67.3) | 14.2 (8.4–22.9) | 73.9 (67.5–79.4) |
| Urban location | 81.8 (77.5–85.4) | 56.8 (46.5–66.5) | 87.8 (82.9–91.4) |
CI, confidence interval; IQR, interquartile range; FMS, family medicine specialist; Multimorbidity refers to having 2 or more chronic conditions