Table 2.

Socio-demographic characteristics of 71 persistent FAs and 71 NAs in the preceding 3 months

Variable	FA median (range) or n (%)	NA median (range) or n (%)	P value
Service use
No. of GP appointments	4 (0–30)	1 (0–6)	<0.001 a
No. of medications	5 (0–18)	1 (0–14)	<0.001 a
No. of secondary care contacts	0 (0–10)	0 (0–6)	0.15 a
No. of emergency care contacts	0 (0–3)	0 (0–2)	0.17 a
Marital status
Married/partner	37 (52)	48 (68)	0.03 b
Single/divorced/widow	34 (48)	23 (32)
Highest educational qualifications
None	28 (39)	14 (20)	0.009 c
Degree	7 (10)	16 (22)
Other	36 (51)	41 (58)
Occupational status
Unemployed	11 (15)	7 (10)	0.36 c
Employed	24 (34)	30 (42)
Retired	29 (41)	33 (46)
Carer	6 (8)	1 (1)
Missing	1 (1)	0 (0)
Monthly net income
£0–£500	15 (21)	9 (13)	0.10 c
£500–£1000	14 (20)	25 (35)
£1000+	23 (32)	28 (39)
Missing	19 (27)	9 (13)

^a Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for service use.

^b McNemar’s test for marital status.

^c Symmetry tests for highest educational qualifications, occupational status and monthly net income.